By: ODINAKA ANUDU
Sherifat Olabisi Adeleye is a civil engineer by training and profession. She owns a civil engineering, construction and facility management company called Shlaad Engineering Company & Handyman Services. The firm maintains offices and homes from start to finish. It is also in the business of interior decoration, with a special focus on marketing of throw pillows, duvets and others related products.
Sherifat started this business in 2010 on a part-time basis, but went into it fully in 2016. It is not completely wrong to say that Sherifat is proverbially treading where angels fear to tread; she is playing in a profession purely dominated by men. But she remains undaunted.
“The number one thing is that once you are in this kind of business, you do not have to see yourself as a woman any longer,” she tells Start-Up Digest.
“You have to see yourself as a man and you need not be emotional about it. You leave the ‘woman’ aspect of you at home and let people see the boldness.”
She has master’s degree in Civil Engineering, working in construction and facility management firms for 15 years.
The entrepreneur started ‘anyhow’. For her, what mattered was to set up the company first. This was, perhaps, why she started in her home.
“With trainings and determination, I had to learn and re-learn. You burn your fingers in this kind of situation. At the end of the day, you may put your own money, but you will smile when success beckons,” she says.
”I started from my house. That’s how I ran the business for seven years before moving into an office. I had to put a face to my company; I had to put a physical structure. Getting your client is the biggest thing, not really an office,” she explains.
She notes that the journey has been overwhelming and profitable, but riddled with challenges.
Sherifat cannot really say that the number of her clients has shot up. But she believes she is getting there.
Read More >> https://www.businessdayonline.com/life-arts/enterpreneur/article/meet-sherifat-adeleye-construction-entrepreneur/
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