Courtney Adeleye built her lucrative business right out of her home.
While working as a registered nurse a decade ago, she found herself on the hunt for a natural haircare brand that contained what her coils needed, according to Entrepreneur.
“There were not many brands that used natural ingredients and specialized in healthy hair growth at the same time,” Adeleye told the outlet. “So, I started mixing my own products at home and infused them with vitamins, nutrients and healthy ingredients.”
Being self-sufficient in her haircare journey led to exposure once she uploaded videos on YouTube. Viewers were eventually interested in buying her products. Therefore, Adeleye used $500 from her savings account to create deep conditioning treatments and then sold them, the outlet details.
The leap of faith turned into what people know today as The Mane Choice, which sold $10 million in products within Adeleye’s first three years of operation from her home.
What’s more, according to Entrepreneur, by 2019, the natural haircare line generated $100 million in sales and an IPO. Three years later, Adeleye founded Olbali, “a health-focused direct-selling company, to house her private brands, including The Mane Choice, Cool Coffee Clique, Foolproof Body and more.”
Although Olbali is a Black-owned company, the entrepreneur has vocalized that she aims for her brands to be diverse, inclusive, and open to all.
Before the close of National Black Business Month, Adeleye shared words of advice for entrepreneurs including “If you don’t think you have a great product, you need to try again before releasing it.” She also said, “You have to believe in yourself before anyone else will.”
“If you don’t believe your business is just as good or even better than the next business, it never will be,” Adeleye shard with Entrepreneur. “There is no such thing as an oversaturated industry. I say, ‘An industry cannot be oversaturated if I am not currently producing in it.'”
