Sharon Kumbul; Resilience Personified

According to Elizabeth Edwards, Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good.

This month's publication of The Post Exclusive features a resilient and hardworking woman, Sharon Kumbul, though widowed at an early age she has continued to put her head above the water and her journey is worth the while. 

Please read some excerpts from the interview with Sharon Kumbul, the CEO & creative director FairyDust Studio, Makurdi.

BACKROUND/EDUCATION

I am Sharon Cordelia Ngunan Kumbul. I am from Benue State Logo Local Government Area precisely. I am self employed.

Hmmmm, the actual answer to this question is long but lemme try to shorten it. I was born into the family of Late Mr. Saul Shanum Igbabee and Mrs. Bridget Swande. To my father I’m the first child, to my mother, I’m the last child (smiles) Complicated, right? Oh well

I grew up in Gboko with my grandmother who over pampered me (God bless her kind soul). 

I started secondary school in Malamin Seconday Gboko at a very young age, I moved to Makurdi in 2003 after writing JSSCE to live with my elder sister. So by 2006 I was out of Government Girls Secondary School Makurdi and  I was barely 17 years old. It took 3 attempts to get into the university, not like I was failing JAMB, nah(smiles) I’m too intelligent to fail an exam (laughs)  I didn’t want to school in Benue State so getting into universities in other states was difficult but since years were passing by I had to rewrite JAMB and choose a university in my state. So in 2009 I got admission into Benue State University. 

I studied Mass Communication and graduated in 2014, went for the composory National Youths Service Corps same year in Bayelsa. Passed out and got married to Late Engr. Patrick Iornenge Kumbul and we have a beautiful daughter together, Avadoo Ashley Kumbul who is 4 years old now. 

Sharon's daughter, Avadoo

Before we got married I remembered I had passion for makeup artistry and since I was looking for a means for livelihood I decided to registry and train with Zaron Cosmetics, Makurdi in January 2016. Unfortunately I lost my husband on the 2nd of November, 2019 to the cold hands of death.

Sharon and her daughter, Avadoo

WHAT KEEPS YOU GOING?

My key driving force; fear for failure. I do not want to fail. I have a lot of responsibilities and if I fail... it won’t be good. That is my everyday drive.

YOUR JOURNEY AS AN ENTREPRENEUR & BUILDING YOUR BRAND

The idea of my business... I remember in 2015 when Abigail Ocheibi, my course mate, uploaded pictures of her with a beautiful makeover and I really liked it so I asked her who did it and she said Alex Aboh, that he worked with Zaron at that time. I decided to collect Alex’s number and call him, I enrolled and after completing my training I got married and had a child, at this time I was practicing from home but I needed to own a shop seeing that those who had shops had more patronage, so in 2017 I owned my first studio. And it was just a desire to create a job for myself because I’ve always been someone who likes my freedom and creating a job for myself meant being my own boss and a boss to others (Smiles).

First Fairy Dust studio; courtesy of her late husband.

Interior 

THE JOURNEY 

The name Fairy Dust Studio was gotten from cartoons about Fairies. I was looking for a business name, I first came up with Shasha’s Signature and my friend, Damian Ashinjo kicked against it. He was highly against it, said it was too common. I changed to Delia’a Touch, but I didn’t quite like the sound of it and so many makeup artists seem to have “touch” in their names so I changed to Shasha’s Faces. I used it for a while but I wasn’t satisfied, I wanted something unique and while frequently watching cartoons on Fairies, I always saw the magic Fairies did in those cartoons, I saw how a sprinkle of it changed stuffs, I began to think of it, and since what I do can be likened to magic I decided to go with the name. So in 2017 I became Fairy Dust Studio

I got funds from 3 places when I started. My late husband built a small shop for me in front of our home and supported with finance to buy some basic items too. I joined a #20,000 monthly contribution with my friends using my NPower pay of #30,000, and I got little money from clients. Little because my patronage was quite low. They were times I went for days without patronage.

Second studio 

Second studio

"Building a successful customer base has to do with 2 basic things;  being respectful and welcoming to all clients and secondly, improving on your skills every day. No matter how humble or respectful you are if you refuse to improve your clients will leave you and no matter how much you improve if you are arrogant a lot of clients will run away too. So these 2 things have been helping me

"I market my brand basically through social media. 95% of my clients are from Social media. I get students to train from there and almost all my bridal jobs are from there too. Each time I do any makeup I upload on my social media handles along side my phone number and whenever I buy makeup products to sell too I take pictures of my products and upload and boom...

Referrals too help so we make sure that all our clients are satisfied, bearing in mind that they will bring us new clients.

Social media has been the most successful tactic in marketing the brand, Fairy Dust Studio.

My favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur is the freedom that comes with it. Knowing I can go to work whenever I decide and close whenever is so satisfying (smiles)  I call the shots in my studio and nothing can be more satisfying.

Looking at my monthly income, nothing beats that moment... but it’s disheartening when some months are full of debits alerts instead of credit alerts.

When I started I couldn’t even afford a makeup box, I bought a launch bag for kids and that housed my products for a long time. Then I bought a small makeup box later and I was finally able to open a small studio. when I started I went weeks without patronage but I didn’t give up, imagine I did, I wouldn’t have grown to where I am now. Just stay consistent, focused and devoted to your work and better days will definitely come. Things might be slow now but they won’t be slow forever if you refuse to quit. I like to say that I am favoured because of how fast I’ve grown. My first makeup studio was opened in 2017, in 2018 my husband built a bigger shop because the previous one couldn’t accommodate my increased client base, in 2019 I paid for a bigger space but had to do a lot of renovations so we moved into it in February 2020, the interior was so beautiful, I was so proud of myself, on the 2nd of January 2021 we moved into somewhere far bigger than the previous space and this isn’t my finally bus stop, this is just my starting point. God, hardwork, determination, and focus has brought me this far so this is why we shouldn’t give up for it is in never giving up that success is birthed.

My team is a combination of amazing personalities, they have been supportive to the brand. Avese Akombu, Mercy Agim, Alvin Ahula, Blessing Orya and Nguveren Mbaukaan

WHAT REGRETS DO YOU HAVE?

I have no regrets, I like how I started, I always pray so I like to say that God guided every step I took so there is absolutely nothing I could have done differently.

COPING WITH WIDOWHOOD; THE JOURNEY

My widowhood journey... (Pauses)

I give God all the glory. It would have been a tough journey if my in-laws were bad people but they are super amazing and have been nothing short of a bag of sweetness to me and my child. What they have done for me, how they support me, I’ve never heard any widow praise her in-laws but my story is different, so different. They made widowhood so easy. Everyday I say a prayer for them that God should reward them here on earth and someday in heaven.

Accepting God’s will over my life was difficult, but eventually I did and made peace with reality, now I am just glad I can at least take care of my child. She keeps asking of him..,

Nothing prepared me for the path my life took on the 2nd of November, 2019. But I’m grateful to God for strength... My husband’s death made me realize just how strong I am, I knew I was strong but I didn’t know I was this strong.

YOUR WORDS FOR THE UPCOMING ENTREPRENEUR

"I see success as the only evidence to hard work. It’s the only thing that signifies that a person has indeed been focused and determined and has been working completely hard.

There is no pattern to hard work, just do your very best and leave the rest to God.

I’d like to also advice college graduates to bear in mind that there are no jobs out there especially for those of us without connections so they have to start up something by themselves, no matter how small.

I’ll like to add that they should never give up no matter how slow things might be in the beginning."

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME MA'AM

"Thank you very much, I appreciate you for this privilege"

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HERE ARE SOME WORKS OF FAIRY DUST STUDIO (Current Studio) 

Scroll through 

Dress stand

 

Photo booth 

More photos of her work

Kindly scroll

More photos

CEO, Fairy Dust 

Makeup By Fairy Dust Studio

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