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Discover the fascinating journey of Kanessa Muluneh as she navigates the complexities of entering and thriving in African markets with her brand Mulu. Gain insights into her innovative strategies, challenges faced, and the unique opportunities presented by this vibrant market. Don't miss this enlightening discussion on expanding business horizons!
Listen to the full episode here - https://beyond8figures.com/podcast-episodes/
Watch the Episodes On YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Beyond8Figures
Listen to the full episode here - https://beyond8figures.com/podcast-episodes/
Watch the Episodes On YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Beyond8Figures
Creators & Guests
What is Beyond 8 Figures?
At Beyond 8 Figures, we believe in DELIBERATE entrepreneurship. It means creating a solid foundational framework for your entrepreneurial journey, building from a place of passion, and intentionally aligning your actions with your goals so that you can create success on your terms.
Join A.J. Lawrence, the journeyman entrepreneur with several 7 figure exits, as he shares honest conversations with successful entrepreneurs about their experiences starting and scaling businesses to $10M and beyond, the realities of being a modern-day entrepreneur, advice for practicing deliberate entrepreneurship, and more!
Kanessa Muluneh:
My age is 33 and I would like to retire soon. It hasn't even been a year since I entered the market and the demand is just so insane. The african side of Mulu is just doing so well. Sometimes people are quick to just say, just work hard, work smart, whatever. It's not just that. It's really your support system or the people around you that can get you to where you are.
A.J. Lawrence:
I would really like to maybe dive into what you're doing in Africa because I was going through Mulu, and like I said, I really do like stylish sort of futuristic, but not like way too far out kind of neat. But I was really intrigued by the whole section you had on the site. Well, two things. One, I'm intrigued in sort of the web3, look and feel, at least on the front end of it. And then two, the Mulu Africa and what you're doing there. Are you really looking to do this in a web3 approach or is it just the look for the front end?
Kanessa Muluneh:
Mulu started as a brand for women, as a plus size brand actually, for women. I was plus size back in the days. I lost a lot of weight, but I used to be plus size, a power lifter. And I did not have the proper clothes. So I started making my own clothes. And just like anything else, I just saw a problem and I was like, okay, I'm going to fix this problem by creating clothes or manufacturing my own clothes. When I started wearing those clothes and my outfits, people noticed and they were like, hey, where did you get this from? And that's basically how Mulu started as a female clothing line. And it has been that for five and a half years.
The last six months, I added men and it was because of my husband. Because he was constantly asking me like, hey, it's not fair that you have all these cool clothes. Where am I in the whole equation? And as a joke, I made designs for men and suddenly the same thing happened. And I was like, this is your fault. So you're going to make sure that this thing, this men section sells. And I actually did a shoot with him and surprisingly, it sold. And the first market that adapted was Africa. And I think it's because of my whole storytelling.
People have been following me for quite some time. He's been part of the story. They knew him, they liked his image. And basically his image sold the product. And it was an instant success, especially in Africa and now slowly also on the Asian market. So he discovered a new talent. He became a model. No, but that's how we launched as a test.
It was just a test phase. We're still in the test phase. So now I'm slowly developing that part of the brand as well. But it's really yeah, the African side of Mulu is just doing so well. And it hasn't even been a year since I entered the market and the demand is just so insane. And for a long time, I grew up in the west, I grew up in Netherlands.
I've been selling on the European market, on the US market for quite some time. But I was not prepared for Africa because my image was not as good. Because, you know, there was always this image portrayed in the west about Africa or Asia. And then I was like, okay, I'm in for the ride. I went to Ethiopia. That's where I was born. I introduced the brand. I launched the brand and it exploded.
A.J. Lawrence:
Well, let's talk about that, specifically what you did. Because I read you have one representative in there. You have the telegram group. When you went to Ethiopia, you were coming to launch a brand in Africa. What did you have planned already? What did you do to help facilitate that?
Kanessa Muluneh:
Well, it started by me making silly TikTok videos because my language with my parents, my Ethiopian language was quite okay. But then I moved out, I went to medical school and I was living by myself and start building my own life. And the only Ethiopian language I spoke was that one phone call with my parents once a week or twice a week. So my language started to, you know, it was not improving. So I started making TikTok videos so I could have conversations with people. I can at least speak the language more. It was just an excuse for me.
A.J. Lawrence:
Yeah.
Kanessa Muluneh:
And people started ask questions because they googled me or they found my story and they were like, oh, what is this? And how do you do this? And I started making explainer videos. And that's how they, or how I introduced myself to the African market. Actually, at first it was just about my life in the West, but then it turned into the business side of it and it was like, oh, but how do you start your own business? And how do you this? And then we came to that point where NFTs were so popular and Crypto entered the market and they were like, wait, but I see you're also in the web3 space. What is that? And that's how my NFT journey started. It actually started with my African crowd. And I actually also created my own NFT collection, which was actually, initially, it was just to introduce the NFTs. It was a educational, it had an educational purpose.
So I just wanted to teach them how it worked so we created our own NFT collection and I sold out instantly. It was just that moment that I realized like, Whoa, this is quite interesting. And imagine they don't have access to money online, so they don't have Internet, they don't have the tools to pay online, and they still manage to find a way to buy Crypto in order to buy my NFTs. They went all that way to be part of my community. And that's when I actually got introduced to the African market.
A.J. Lawrence:
All right, so you had this audience you built up, you had developed a community now of people using probably mobile crypto wallets and kind of going there. And as you said, you have a representative, or I read you have a representative because you are not using a website. You are using this sort of direct sale thing. How is that impacting how you're building the business there?
Kanessa Muluneh:
Well, I still have to get used to it because people order through WhatsApp or through we have telegram channel, for example. I never use telegram in my life but it was something they used so I had to adapt. So I created a telegram channel. That's my way of marketing, but it takes a lot of effort to get them there. So I had to just use old fashioned methods, like local news or tv or whatever. I had to go through the traditional marketing. I had to take the traditional routes basically here, and then ask them to send us a message if they're interested.
And then I have to send them the bank details. And then once it's transferred, they will send me screenshots. And then the process starts of shipping it to them or getting it to them. And that can take up to two weeks sometimes. And they're okay with that. They're willing to wait.
A.J. Lawrence:
It's funny enough, but ordering catalogs back in the day would take weeks upon times living in Spain. It's funny. A lot of times when you interact with people, you would have to screenshot your iband when you would transfer money over to someone on it because it was like, how do I know if they're doing more than a couple of things at a time? It's like, yeah, here's my screenshot of my payment to you. That's the confirmation. That's a pretty straightforward yet cumbersome in doing this. It feels like it is both very cool and very like, wow, you get a great insight into what people want because to do this is not an easy. It's not clicking on a button and having your credit card information automatically fill in. It actually takes work. So therefore, these people are more than the average consumer, you know, taking the extra effort. Are you finding that you can expand this? Is this something that's more of just the experiment as the market develops? How do you see this moving forward?
Kanessa Muluneh:
It's hard to predict because Africa is an Asian market. It's just different than what we know in the West. I never dealt with corruption for example. It was the first time in my life that I faced corruption while doing business. Things like bribery are totally normal. It's not that I have an opinion about it, but it's just it was new.
I mean, my parents told me about it but when you face it, it was just like, Whoa, what is this? So, yeah, I still have to learn how to deal with certain situations, and you learn once you face them. And the next phase now for me is to open a store, a physical store in Ethiopia, in Ghana and Nigeria.
A.J. Lawrence:
Oh, wow. Yeah.
Kanessa Muluneh:
People are already warning me, like, be aware of random people from the government stopping by or coming by asking for certain things. And I'm like, what? I don't know how to deal with that yet, but I'm in for the ride like I said. So, yeah, it's just it's fun in a way. It's fun. I mean, the first time I entered Ethiopia, I brought my items, and it was so stupid of me,.I announced it on TikTok thinking it was something. It was a marketing strategy, obviously.
A.J. Lawrence:
Yeah, pop up.
Kanessa Muluneh:
But then the customs knew about it as well and they were ready, waiting for me, and they taxed all my items. And it was that moment that I learned, Okay, am I gonna bribe them? Is this the moment that people are warning me for or do I just pay the tax? And I have no idea what the whole situation was about, but eventually I paid $500, which is quite a lot in Ethiopia.
A.J. Lawrence:
Yeah.
Kanessa Muluneh:
And I managed to keep my stuff, but it was that moment when I realized, yep, I entered the Africa market.