INTERVIEW! "WHILE I WANTED TO BE THERE FOR MY CHILDREN, I STILL DIDN'T WANT TO BE A SIT-AT-H0ME MOM" MOFOLUSADE SONAIKE, FOUNDER 'MUMPRENUER.NG'.

"The plan is living out my dreams to the fullest, even when I am married with kids, without sacrificing my family! This is the thought of most women, this is our fear and worry. We hear stories, they say this is impossible, you have to sacrifice one, your family will suffer, your children will stray."

Mofolusade Sonaike thinks IT'S ALL POSSIBLE.
She dreams it, She talks it, She teaches it.
It was an amazingly inspiring moment listening to this passionate, energetic, and soft spoken woman.
Brief but a great interview every woman will relate to.
Enjoy!

1. CAN WE MEET YOU?
My name to Mofolusade Sonaike, I studied Chemical Engineering at University of Lagos, I had an MBA from Lagos Business School. I like to be called a Mumpreneur, that's what most people call me, and that's because of my passion and message, which is the fact that a woman can build a successful business and also be a good mother at the same time, it is not an "either, or" thing.
So currently, I run "mumpreneur.ng". It is a networking and support platform for mothers who run their own businesses, also I work at "branded.ng" where we help people promote their businesses, build their personal and corporate brands.

2. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO START RUNNING "MUMPRENEUR"?
I have been running "mumpreneur" actively since 2013, before then, I worked in the corporate sector for a while, two years in Banking, and almost two years in Manufacturing. I was with Dangote, when my first son was about a year old; I got tired of that life, I just wanted to be there for my son. So I resigned from Dangote to start a business because I wanted to have more time.  I Started a Gift consulting business,  I am somebody that likes to shop, being the first of six children, I was always the one buying stuff for everybody and then also there were not many females in Engineering, so when my friends wanted to buy gifts for their girlfriends, I used to be the one to help them buy it,  because I enjoyed doing this, I built a business out of it.

In 2011, I had my 2nd child, It became difficult to cope with the business and homefront, I realized that it was not easy. Some persons think that when you resign and start your own business all your problems are solved, you have time, you are now your own boss and can do what you like, but it is not the reality. There was a lot I needed to learn; there were a lot of things that I did that were not right.
With the way Entrepreneurship is being portrayed in the Media, when you see headlines like, "How I made my first Million" and you sometimes ask some of these Entrepreneurs how they do it, and they say, "O it's just God" as if God came down, it makes you feel like a failure you, when you break down and things don’t go well.  At a point I was thinking maybe I should just dust my C. V. and look for a Job.

3. WHAT WAS THE INITIAL CHALLENGE?
Before I resigned, I had started the business by the side, so it was looking fantastic and I was confident that it was something I could do easily, but this business outside of my paid Job, was not paying my Bills. Now that I look back it was not meant to be a service for everyone, just a few people in the high net worth niche that could afford it. I made losses doing it for everyone, it was really stressful and my pricing was wrong, because I felt it was a passion, I didn’t calculate the miscellaneous expenses and because someone else was at home providing, I was underpricing.
That was what led to MumPreneur, I met a Mentor at "IBM" (International Business Machine) Mentoring Program for Women in Business and it opened my eyes,  I wished I had known most of what they talked on before I resigned.

People say Women don't support Women, but this Program was for Women Mentoring Women. So I said to myself, "look let's have a Network for Mothers in business", this was based on my own story, while I wanted to be there for my Children, I still didn't want to be a Sit-at-home Mom, "why can't you bring all these Women together so that we can support and help each other and make our lives better" and that was how my business started. It also is a platform for women who do not work, or have never worked, but are looking for what to do, to feel fulfilled, but they don't know where to start.

4. HOW DOES MUMPRENUER AS A PLATFORM FOR WOMEN, FUNCTION?
We have a Monthly meet up, where we thrash different issues. Which is last Sunday of every month with a Theme for each month. The whole idea is to break this barrier of People holding back information. The meet-ups are set up such that, everybody is ready to share, sometimes, something that may be helpful to you that you don't know, someone else knows it.

We share and exchange Ideas, and then we have a platform where we blog. You know women have a lot of needs; we try to help with information they need to make their life and business better. The blog address is https://mumpreneur.ng . It has incorporated in it an Online directory of businesses owned by Mumprenuers.

5. HOW HAVE ALL THESE IMPACTED THESE WOMEN YOU REACH OUT TO?
I invite people to come live on my Instagram Page periodically to speak about their areas of strength, recently, there was a certain episode, after I was done, a woman sent me a message, that before the live streaming, she was feeling overwhelmed, because she just moved, and she felt she wasn't achieving much, she was almost feeling like a failure, but that night an issue was addressed, which made her feel better,  so she said, It helped her decide to just relax, bake a cake and eat with her Children and drink tea, that tomorrow is another day". I felt truly happy.

6. DO MUMPRENUER HAVE A SCHEME WHERE FINANCIAL FACILITIES OF ANY SORT IS EXTENDED TO INDIGENT WOMEN?
Ultimately, it is something we are getting to. We have actually rendered help to few women, there was a Woman I saw online, I brought her in, branded her, and helped her get more sales. If you google ' Ogiri woman', you will get the story, she was selling Ogiri in the East and we brought her to Lagos. Somebody recorded a video of her that went viral, when she was selling with so much excitement and passion, I saw
the Video and I was really moved by that, so I put it up on my Page, inquiring whether anyone had any information about her, it was about a month later that someone sent her number, I called her out of the blues and she was happy to come from Imo state to Lagos.

We put her work online, built a website, created social media handles for her, which we still manage so that People can order. We are currently looking for better ways to package her products. So she can export. She came to Lagos with almost a whole box full of Ogiri and she sold it out before she left. We are making arrangements, for her to be back soon.

There was also a widow who I met, whose story I shared online, I share stories of women who are struggling to make ends meet and some of my followers online, reach out to them.  She took a loan for her business from a Microfinance Bank; her business was that of selling fresh Tomatoes and Pepper. After she paid back, it totally drowned her business. She couldn't continue, there was a reader from the diaspora who saw the story and sent money for her to restart her business.

7. WHAT KEEPS MUMPRENUER AS A PLATFORM, GOING?
I connect with it so much because this is my story. I wanted to be more than just a Mother, wanted to be more, to give my kids something they can be proud of, I see many Mothers who give up their dreams after they have Children; they feel that their life is over. There was this quote I saw that was very inspiring for me, which talks about when you allow yourself shine, you're allowing someone else an opportunity to shine too. It is not that I am perfect, I am growing through my struggles, and I know that I am impacting lives by sharing.

On one occasion, at my Children’s school they had this Career Day event and they had Pilots, Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers etc, just the conventional Careers and I contacted them, asking about the kid whose Mom is a Seamstress, also about a Kid whose Mom buys and sells, how would they feel? The Child would feel that his/her mom is not doing something that is worth celebrating. My Children know that I am doing something, and they are proud of me.

Some Children would be like, "My mom is a trader" like if it's worth nothing.  Here’s the thing though, even If she is not an Engineer or Lawyer or whatever, she is still someone of honor, because she is doing something, and we need to define that something, and that is "A Mumprenuer".
Children have to understand this reality, not everybody can be a Lawyer or Doctor, maybe on paper, but there are other things that people can do that we should be proud of. Sometimes you see some people, they will be like, "oh I am a tailor" and they are ashamed, or ”I run a canteen" what is the shame in that? It's something to be proud of and you can make it professional.

So my work at branded.ng which is about helping individuals build personal and corporate brands, social media management, creating videos as well as other businesses, done by other Mothers though not the conventional Career paths nor the usual 8 to 5 kind of Jobs, is something to be proud of.

8. WHAT HAVE YOUR CHALLENGES BEEN SO FAR AS IT INVOLVES MUMPRENUER?
It's easy to say "I can work under pressure, when you are submitting a C.V. How about when there is no pressure?  Where you have free time and all, and you work for yourself; for you to stay motivated when there is no pressure, it takes a lot; you have to have something else driving you. This was the first thing I had to deal with.

Secondly when I resigned from my work at Dangote, the family income dropped, because I was earning about 200,000 Naira then, My husband was initially scared, I told him to give me a two years benefit of doubt, at least so I will not resent him, let me go and try something different.  It was not easy, right now, he has bought into the Vision, when he goes somewhere they tell him, "Oh, we saw your wife on T.V, your wife is doing this and that, and it makes him proud, now I make money and I support him.

Once you find a message and you are vocal about it, it attracts People to you, so a lot of times, I get invited, I have been on "Seriously Speaking, also on Ebony Live T.V. on so many other shows, right now I'm about to launch my own Show, where I will be, interviewing and showcasing MUMPRENUERS, I am already doing something similar on YouTube, now I'm looking at mainstream T.V.

9. HOW CAN YOU BE REACHED?
I reply instantly to messages on Facebook, Instagram or Email. My Instagram handle is @Mofolusade or @mumpreneur.ng, My Facebook name is Mofolusade Sonaike.

10.HAVE YOU ENCOUNTERED WOMEN WHOSE HUSBANDS AREN'T QUITE SUPPORTIVE?
A lot. I had a much older friend, she was in Hospitality Sector, into Catering, and she was growing fast, but after her first child, her husband said she shouldn't work again, so she gave up that dream for him, to be a full time House wife and all that, and you know what? 14, 15, Years down the line, this man impregnates another woman and left her.

She started her business from the scratch again. Women should not give up their dreams for anything, if you are being told that a man will take away all your troubles, what happens if the man is no more there, or if he loses his own source of income and you have to rise up to the challenge. I know we say God forbid, but the most important thing is if anything, do it for you, do it because God gave you a gift that the world needs.  I don’t encourage rebellion in our homes, I believe we largely want homes where there is peace,  the key is Communication, we should know the person we married, we should apply wisdom, they say men are Egocentric, he appreciates it better if the idea seems to come from him. So involve him, constantly communicate.

10. WHAT IS YOUR VISION?
For me, I have a big dream, a message, which is that, "A society is only as good as its Family Units, I say this most times when I go to speak. The evil and corrupt people everywhere stem from a family, someone gave birth to them. If a woman is not happy even as a housewife, the Children cannot be happy. My message is that Women are influencers. Our Vision in MUMPRENUER is to raise a generation of Women who have built Successful businesses without sacrificing family. The home is where it all begins!

11. WHAT'S YOUR ADVICE FOR WOMEN WITH "DREAMS"?
Women find yourself, connect with your passion and make your light shine".




Hello!
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akorahchinelo@gmail.com.