What’s up guyyyy!
Today, we’re talking campus entrepreneurship, and trust us, this is not one of those “I’ve always been passionate since childhood” stories 😭💀
On this Up Close and Personal(UCAP) episode, we’re spotlighting our Community Member of the Year, Rahmah Ibrahim, popularly known as Ama’s Collection. A soon-to-be graduate, 500-level Physics student at FUTMinna, and a full-blown campus entrepreneur who started her business with vibes, inshaAllah, and a very real need to escape sapa.
What began as a survival move in her 200 level has grown into a modest fashion brand providing stylish, affordable, and confidence-boosting outfits for women. From selling caps with zero capital to running a ready-to-wear boubou and abaya brand, Rahmah’s journey is proof that sometimes you don’t start because you’re ready, you start because hunger is loud and bills are calling.
We asked her 10 questions to know about her campus entrepreneurship journey, so get comfortable, because this story is honest, funny, chaotic, and very relatable!
If Ama’s Collection were a person, what kind of girl would she be? Soft babe, classy auntie, or low-key CEO?
Born to be a soft life princess, forced to be a hustler.
What was the exact moment you decided, “Yep, I’m starting this business, whatever happens, happens”?
😹😹
I didn’t start my business out of passion or anything…Ama’s Collection was born out the will to survive.
I was in peak SAPA mode in my 200 level… it was so bad that week. I was eating once a day or twice if my roommate decided to change my story.
A normal person would have called their parents to ask for money but I was doing “little ms independent and tough…I can survive all situations”
I finally made it to Saturday and my roommate and I didn’t have breakfast that morning and hunger wanted to finish us😭😭
We used 2 hours to gather 350 to go and buy bread to share.
After eating the bread, I knew it was time to finally start a side hustle because I can’t be living like this…
But the main problem was…
I had no capital (Zero, zilch, nada, nothing).
I had no marketing skills or experience and worst of all…I had no business plan.
I just knew I had to sell something. And whatever it was, it had to cost next to nothing, because…(the pressure was getting wesser)
My business model was non existent.
I’m the queen of “act first, think later.” It’s a miracle I haven’t accidentally sold a house, to be honest.
I do the most random things at random times, and somehow, they often work out.
So, that fateful, random day in July 2023, I decided enough is enough! I needed to shoot my shot.
I picked up my phone and created 2 WhatsApp groups…GoFundMe 1 and GoFundMe 2.
I added my uncles to GoFundMe 1 and my mom and aunty to GoFundMe 2.
I went there and typed the pitch of my life ( Good afternoon, my wonderful family. Your daughter has a brilliant business idea bla bla bla…)
I told them I wanted to start selling caps, how much they cost, and the “profit margins” I had just cooked up in my head. All I needed was ₦5,000.
I hit send. And I dropped my phone because I was scared.
When I picked my phone up…one of the uncles from GoFundMe 1 replied with send account number and he sent me the 5k.
I screameddddd!!
Then, from my second group, my aunty sent another ₦5k. Double Alert!
I was a ten-naire! ₦10,000! I was the richest girl in my hostel...
...for exactly five minutes.
Because you know how life is. As soon as that 10k landed, one ancient, long-forgotten school “billing” just rose from the grave and demanded to be paid.
Just like that my 5k was gone💀
I stared at the last ₦5,000 in my account and said, “Omo, it is now or never. Before this one follows its brother.
I knew if I stayed in my room for one more hour, it would turn into data or lunch. It was now or never.
I ran to the market, grabbed 20 caps in different colors, and brought them back to my hostel. My roommates and friends were my first victims... sorry, customers.
What’s one behind-the-scenes struggle of running a modest fashion brand that customers will never believe?
First of all, you’ll CRYYYYYYY!!!!! Nothing is ever going to prepare you for the amount of tears you’ll shed😭😭
Now imagine running a business and being a FUTMinna student at the same time… it’s a miracle how I’ve not gone mad (Lagbara Olorun, I’ll not run mad😂 but you get my point).
You’re going to have cases of what I ordered vs what I got during fabric sourcing and that’s going to be a loss on your end because you can’t give your customers what they don’t like.
Tailors go whine you, but no panic. I have zero knowledge of tailoring and fashion design and somehow I started a Ready to wear Boubou line….
At that point, all power belonged to my tailors because they’ll either make or break you and they’re the ones responsible for bringing my vision to life.
I’ve had cases where what I wanted wasn’t what I got, and when I finish crying or getting upset over it…I’ll plan how to shoot product pictures or videos to sell.
Because as someone will always tell me “Your customers didn’t know what you wanted, you’re the one overthinking things. Just put it out and see if they like it or not”.
And they always prove me wrong…because they always like everything 😂❤️
Funniest or wildest customer request you’ve ever gotten?
(We need the gist.)
This happened in my 400 level, around May or so…I received a message from someone that wanted to buy a Dubai Abaya (there’s different classes of abaya for those who don’t know) as a present for someone.
I sent her pictures and she made her choice. I sent her a live video to confirm if it was exactly what she wanted and gave a go ahead.
She placed her order on Saturday and wanted it delivered by Monday… but as the queen of fast delivery…
We got the abaya to minna by Sunday morning.
I was even happy, because delivery can be something else and I didn’t want to ruin someone’s birthday because of late delivery.
I took the abaya to her and in less than 5 minutes of giving her the abaya, I got a call….
In my head, I’m like “Dan dan!” (You know that panic when you deliver something to a client and you’re expecting a review then you see them recording a really long voice note…yeah that one! Only that this time it was a phone call)
I answered and the next thing I heard what “where are you, I’m coming to meet you”
Haaa…I had no idea why, because I delivered the right thing and the quality was a 100.
I waited for her on the road and when she came she started saying she didn’t like the abaya I got for her and the fabric felt like it was school uniform material…
School uniform material as how… that’s new!
She started saying how cheap it felt and it wasn’t worth the amount of money she paid for the abaya.
She also said that if she gifted the person the abaya…the person won’t be happy bla bla bla.
That even me I won’t be happy if someone gifts me this type of thing (in my head I’m like…I’ll roll on the floor if you buy me abaya, try me and see😂)
In summary, she said she couldn’t accept the abaya and she’d like to exchange it for another one before Monday and she’ll cover the delivery expenses (this conversation happened around 8pm Sunday evening)
How do I want to ship abaya out of minna and bring another one in before Monday at that time.
I just took the abaya and walked back to my hostel in tears😭 I didn’t even care if anybody was looking at me.
This was the first time I delivered something and they said they didn’t like it and I didn’t see anything wrong with the abaya in question…
But then, what do they always say? The customer is always right.
We had a whole back and forth on Monday, which was just me trying to convince her to at least give the person the abaya and if the person doesn’t like it, we can think of a way forward.
I was in class physically but my spirit was with my business. I was worried about how this one bad review might affect my new/old customers.
On Tuesday morning, she picked up the abaya and I didn’t get another text from her to know if the person liked the abaya or not.
In the end, sources revealed to me that she liked the abaya when she opened it, but her roommate made her think the abaya was bad and put thoughts in her head.
Her roommate threatened to send me a voice note if she didn’t do it by herself and that’s why she did all that shenanigans.
Apparently the roommate had a friend that also sells abayas and she wanted her to patronize her friend.
In the end, the main owner of the abaya liked it and that’s all that matters.
After all the heart attack and tears, i was glad to see it all end.
You juggle fashion, graphics design, social media management and school, you also mentioned doing henna, which version of Ama rings the loudest alarm in your head daily?
To be very honest, the alarm that rings in my head every morning is my new role😭
I’m the marketing content writer for a product based business and everything in my head is just how to come up with the perfect hook.
I wake up in the morning and the first thing my brain thinks of is a new hook.
Sometimes it comes while I’m trying to perform ablution, other times while I’m praying, and I’ll just hold it tight and immediately I finish praying, i grab a pen and paper to write it down so I don’t forget.
After that, it’s how to secure more funding for Ama’s Collection, I have soooooo many cool things I want to do next year but securing capital is harddddd. (If you’re reading this and you have one money that you’re not using, you can reach out to me and we’ll double it together 🤭).
What’s one money lesson business taught you that lecturers will never mention?
Profit doesn’t mean you actually have money.
That you’re selling out doesn’t mean you have money.
That you’re posting sold out and screenshots of sales doesn’t mean you have money!
That your friend is running a business and you’re whining them by calling them CEO doesn’t mean they have money!
Expenses go nearly take your life!
What you buy for 10 naira today will be 100 naira by the time you want to restock.
If you think I’m lying, ask around!
Small business owners are mostly always broke, send us money!!!
Be honest: how many times has school stress almost made you shut down the business for 24 hours?
24 hours ke??
School has made me want to shut down till I graduate a million times!
You’ll be thinking of how to get new customers, your course rep will be posting assignment deadlines and test schedule.
If you didn’t know by now, I’m studying physics…so imagine mixing Lagrangian equations with Schrödinger, Laplace and Maxwell equations with one customer trying to send you back to your village with her ridiculous pricing skills or dispatch rider in Abuja trying to make you run mad while you’re in minna with no control over what’s going on with the delivery….
In summary, I’m just a girllll and I can’t come and go and kill myself😪
How has the 10.8.8 community influenced your journey as an entrepreneur?
I don’t think it would have been easy making Ama’s Collection a bit popular without the 10.8.8 community tbh.
I’m such a shy person and I don’t know how to talk to people about my business so I was always in the shadows.
One day, I woke up and my name on campus changed from Rahmah to Ama’s Collection 😂 it was crazy but I liked it and it brought a lot of clients my way.
It all started from the decision to be active on the community.
After talking and interacting with a lot of strangers online, I started meeting them in school randomly, and everybody’s like “Hi Ama’s collection” whenever they see me and the people around them will ask, what does she sell and I’ll tell them about my business and in the end I get a new contact.
I’ve had 10.8.8 community members refer people to me just because they knew what I was selling.
In summary, I’m glad I decided to become an active member of the community, rather than a ghost reader.
If Ama’s Collection had an Instagram bio as an alter ego, what would it say?
I’ve never thought of this, but I guess it would be something along the lines of “Allergic to Sapa, addicted to Credit Alerts, and stressed by Physics lecturers”.
Finish this sentence: “Running a business as a student is …”
Running a business as a student is basically surviving on adrenaline and prayers.
If there’s one thing Rahmah’s journey makes clear, it’s that campus entrepreneurship is not glamorous behind the scenes. It’s tears, losses, pricing struggles, school deadlines, tailors, dispatch riders, Physics equations, and still showing up the next day to post content and make sales.
Ama’s Collection didn’t start with a business plan or capital, it started with courage, desperation, and the decision to try. Along the way, passion followed, growth happened, and a community stepped in to amplify the brand. From learning that profit doesn’t always mean money in your pocket to juggling school stress and customer wahala, her story captures the real experience of student entrepreneurs.
So if you’re reading this and thinking of starting something, take this as your sign. Start small. Start messy. Start scared. Just start. Because sometimes, the thing you begin just to survive might end up becoming something you genuinely love.
Stay hustling, stay praying, and may credit alerts locate all of us!
Till next gist,
Gbemi from 10.8.8 Africa ✨
👌🏾🗿
My love😫❤️