The 22-year-old is Oluwafayokunmi Olutomiwa, a 400-level Electrical Engineering Student at the University of Lagos (UNILAG). She is known to be leading a print and packaging brand, PrintPlaceNg, which is barely 2 years and is fast-changing narratives. An interview with Techcabal gave more insights into her journey.
According to her, she started the business when she was 19. The company was birthed to satisfy the growing demand for oversized t-shirts among young people. As such, she found a need and decided to be a solution. This was the beginning of her business journey, a business which she named, Tee2Drop.
Over the years, she desired to improve the quality of her service by adding branding to the Tees with a unique imprint that she hoped would be a signature for her brand. Her journey to implementing this business idea was the beginning of another journey for her. She couldn’t get a vendor who would deliver at an affordable cost. In her words, “They charged ridiculously high prices and I couldn’t combine the cost of printing and purchase and still provide affordability for my target audience which were mostly students.” Later, she found headway after discussing her plans with a friend who would later turn into her business partner. This friend connected her directly to a traditional printer where she got to know that the price inflation was from the middlemen.
Having settled that, she leveraged social media to promote her service and provide top-notch printing, creative branding and exclusive packaging at affordable prices to her customers. The synergy of the possibilities led to the birth of PrintPlaceNg in February 2021 and that changed her target audience to small and medium-sized enterprises and big companies. Since its official launch, she has worked with over 400 small businesses and some other notable companies like Spleet Africa, Lemonade Finance, Babalakin and Co, Audacia Prime, AM Realty, Wave Beach, Mwangwa and much more.
Talking about how she funded her business before her significance bloomed, she said, she won a few engineering scholarships which she added to her savings to buy her first printing press machine. In addition, she started from her mum’s small store in the house eliminating the need to pay a shop rent. Going forward, she has continued to fund the business with consistency, strategy, prudence, business cash flow and God’s help as none of the grants she has applied for has worked neither has she gotten any positive response from the foundations she has reached out to for support.
Talking about how she balances her tasking academics with a very demanding and growing business, she said, she is consoled that her academics have a time frame. She would commit to seeing that she ends well but for her business, she has a very large vision for it and she doesn’t see herself putting it aside for now.
Despite being faced with financial challenges, we celebrate the unwavering and unrelenting spirit of Oluwafayokunmi.
