Over the weekend, BNStyle hosted an intimate first-of-its-kind event tagged “High Tea with BellaNaija Style” as a landmark event to end the BellaNaija Style Women’s Month 2022 activities! 

As the event kicked off, a meaningful conversation was launched on the trending topic, “The Importance of Collaborating & Fostering Communal Growth”. Where we discussed matters across the pros and cons of entrepreneurship, women supporting women, working a corporate job, and the need for women to keep learning regardless of the professional path taken.

During the conversation, Sandrah Tubobereni, Creative Director of acclaimed fashion house TUBO, attributed part of her career success to being helped, led, and uplifted by women. She expressed how deeply she values women to women connections and gave great insight into what she is doing with her latest initiative #ImpactDayWithTubo, as well as how important it is to inspire and train younger women in the fashion design industry.

In an exclusive interview with Tubo, we sat down for a short Q&A to enlighten us on her initiative.

What inspired you to start this initiative?

TUBO: The initiative started out of the passion to share knowledge in line with this year’s theme of international women’s day, “Breaking the Bias”. Over the years, I’ve been helped by many women on my entrepreneurial journey and I’d hoped to pay it forward someday.

This year I had the nudge to host about 10 to 15 women in an intimate session where I could discuss pain points in their business and proffer solutions. In a bid to achieve this, I put out a post on my personal Instagram page and in less than 24hrs, we had about 391 applicants, seeking to attend #IMPACTDAYWITHTUBO22. By the following morning, we had approximately 500 applications. At this point, we couldn’t choose 10 to 15 out of 500 and I decided to have a full-blown event with 100 selected participants.

The event was planned to share accurate information that could help us break the bias. We sometimes love to act as gatekeepers to certain things, which can be wrong; I wanted a platform where I can teach and give value to people which will enhance their entrepreneurial knowledge.

Can you tell us what Impact Day with Tubobereni is all about?

TUBO: The main purpose of the event was to provide basic entrepreneurial value to our attendees. We highlighted significant areas such as business finance, human resources, standard operating procedures, client profiling, client retention, marketing, branding, business experiences, and personal effectiveness to enhance their entrepreneurial knowledge.

To ensure the practice of all that was learnt at #ImpactDayWithTubo participants were divided into syndicate groups and given practical assignments to be implemented into their businesses, with a follow up of online meetings to discuss challenges and provide further mentorship.

What do you hope to achieve with this initiative in the long run?

TUBO: We plan to host the impact event annually or bi-annually; To constantly equip entrepreneurs with knowledge and help provide answers that will help take their business to the next level.

You can connect with Tubo on Instagram at @tubobereni_