Overview: Building on her own terms
Editor Jasmine McBride profiles entrepreneur Temilola Okunola as she hits a major five-year milestone with her brand $INZU. From navigating early business missteps to scaling up physical retail footprints across Minnesota, Okunola shares the lessons, mindset shifts, and faith that keep her expanding.
Credit: Jasmine McBride/MSR
Temilola Okunola is the founder and CEO of $INZU, a modernized Ankara fashion brand built on her love of beauty, fashion and culture. Now 24, she has been an entrepreneur since age 19, drawn from the start to the idea of building something of her own and creating the freedom to shape her own life on her own terms. She said $INZU became an extension of that drive, filling a demand for African beauty and fashion wear that her customers “didn’t even know they had.”
“$INZU really became an extension of me… My love for beauty, fashion, culture and creating things that make women feel good about themselves,” said Okunola.
Credit: Courtesy
Credit: Courtesy
Her inventory includes everything from necklaces, bracelets and waistbeads to black soap, durags and bonnets.
Learning the business from the ground up
When Okunola started at 19, she said she did not really know what she was doing. She learned everything as she went, from branding and inventory to customers, marketing and finances, often with very few resources. She made mistakes along the way and had ideas that did not work, but she kept building anyway.
“There were definitely moments where I had to figure things out with very little resources,” said Okunola. “Now, five years later, I understand my business and my customers on a completely different level.”
She has grown from simply selling products into building an actual brand, with a physical location, an online store, and a clearer sense of how powerful social media and content can be for reaching customers. She said she is far more intentional now about where she wants $INZU to go, though she is still learning every day and knows she is “not the same businesswoman” she was at 19.
Faith, resilience, and scaling across Minnesota
Okunola said her faith is a major part of what keeps her going. “I genuinely believe God gave me this vision for a reason,” she said. Though there have been obstacles that would have made it easier to quit, she said she has always found another way forward. Her customers keep her motivated as well, she said, describing something special in watching people return, recommend her business, wear her products and support something that started as an idea in her head. “I’ve put too much into $INZU and come too far to give up because something gets difficult,” she said.
Reaching the five year mark at 24 represents resilience, Okunola said, noting that so many different versions of $INZU, and of herself, had to exist to get here. She reflected on five years of meeting new people, both customers and collaborators, but said she still feels like she is “just getting started.” Looking ahead, she wants to grow $INZU’s online presence, expand its product collections, build its social media following and eventually establish the brand well beyond Minnesota. “Five years was about proving to myself that I could build it,” she said. “The next five are about seeing how far I can take it.”
Advice to her younger self & where to shop
Asked what advice she would give her younger self, Okunola said she would tell herself to “stop being so afraid of being seen.” She would push herself to post the content, talk about the business and put her face behind the brand instead of waiting until everything looked perfect to start. She also said she would tell herself to pay attention to the numbers from the beginning, since understanding money, margins and inventory matters just as much as passion. Most of all, she said, “Don’t let temporary setbacks convince you that the vision isn’t working.”
Customers can shop $INZU online and in person at the brand’s kiosk inside Northtown Mall in Blaine. She is also opening up shop at the Mall of America on Sept. 30. $INZU can be found on TikTok and Instagram at @sinzu.world, where the brand shares new products and content.
Okunola said she is grateful to everyone who has supported $INZU at any point during its first five years, whether through a purchase, a shared post, a recommendation to a friend or personal encouragement. She said that support, in all its forms, helped get the brand to where it is today, and she is excited for what comes next.
Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@spokesman-recorder.com.