Our Alumni spotlight for this week is on Koyinsola Vera Cruz, who since graduating from our Aspiring Entrepreneurs Programme (AEP) 55 class is blazing the trail in the Nigerian Trichology and Hair Care business space.

Koyin graduated from the University of Reading in 2009 and got called to the bar in 2012 after which she practiced Law till 2014. Her business, Tresses by K. Vera Cruz, like many great businesses, started off when she had a unique problem. In 2013, she made a deliberate attempt to go on a healthy hair journey. Prior to the time, she had issues with her hair and had experimented with different procedures and hair tools but nothing she did seemed to be producing the desired result which was to have her hair look and grow in a healthy way, so she decided to do some research to figure out why her hair couldn’t grow which lead her to scouring the internet and reading every hair care blog she could find. Over time, she gained a great wealth of knowledge from books she read, but it wasn’t enough until one day when she googled, “What is a hair doctor?” which is where she found out about the practice of trichology which is the medical and cosmetic study of hair and the scalp.

The more she read on the topic to address her hair care issues, the more interested she became in helping others with the knowledge she had also acquired for herself which was beginning to show visible results in the way her hair was positively improving. So, she took out time to take on a Course at the World Trichology Society, New York and that is how Tresses by K. Vera Cruz was birthed.

Over a short period of time after coming back to Nigeria, she quickly became the go to person for immediate family and friends on matters relating to hair care and growth needs. The validation for her potential market size came when she saw a significant growth in demand for her services which she had started through home service routines. In July 2014, she held a program to formally launch Tresses by K. Vera Cruz, July 2014 while also providing an educative platform on why a number of Nigerian females struggled with hair growth needs and  why it was important to understand and pay attention to individual hair care needs.

After the event, she opened formally opened Tresses by K. Vera Cruz in October 2015 at the first floor of Shoppers Delight, Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Given her background in Law and a penchant for approaching things in a structured way, Koyin decided she needed a strong enterprise training program to support and enable the growth of her business. She had heard about FATE Foundation from different mentors who had constantly advised her to look into the AEP. Initially, the 12 weeks commitment seemed quite a stretch but after looking at the Curriculum and having a good interview experience with the FATE School of Entrepreneurship team, she enrolled in the 55 class which was a Saturday only session.

Koyin describes her AEP journey as a significant milestone in helping to grow her idea into a structured Startup.  Although this was something she knew she had wanted to do, she didn’t know how to go about it. The program helped has helped her with reviewing her business and operating strategies, developing a business plan and also knowing how to effectively manage her team.

 

Now, in her business she has client files to organize the information she gathers from the different people she meets each day. She has proper accounting books, which have proven to be essential to any small and growing business. As well as learned a lot about human resources and human capital management as she formerly had one member of staff, but now has five. Koyin strongly encourages anyone to do a program at FATE Foundation as she believes that entrepreneurship education is very important. Especially coming from her background as a lawyer, the program exposes you to so many aspects of business that are incredibly helpful for any aspiring entrepreneur. She says, “AEP is the way to go!”

From just having family and close friends as clients, Koyin’s now provides Trichology consulting services to a wide number of female and male clients at different stages of hair care and growth needs. Given the personalized services she provides and the details she puts into her hair care products most of which are specially formulated by her using locally made products, Koyin has become and has been invited on various platforms and programs to speak on the Science of Healthcare.

She has a clear vision and really bold plans to expand and scale up her business as the go to Trichologist in Nigeria. Always desirous of learning, Koyin ardently takes time to learn more about new ways and products that work for the varied types of hair needs and challenges faced by Nigerian women and specific to their individual hair types. She launched her new hair growth line at the July Beauty Souk and sold out of most of the treatments in just one day.

She is one of our Alumni that we are very proud of and we look forward to may more successes for Koyin and Tresses by K. Vera Cruz

For more information on Tresses by K. Vera Cruz, you can visit www.tressesbykvc.com or follow on Instagram @tressesbykvc