Bamboo Business of the Week – sharing the financial culture and business of the average Bamboo user.
This week we are highlighting DBO Agency – a full-service branding agency run by a passionate brand strategist and her witty yet versatile COO with over 12 years experience combined. They shared how they’ve been able to help brands scale their businesses with the necessary branding tools and how they plan to do so much more.
What’s your name? Tell us about yourself
Osa: My name is Osarieme Osagie-Erese, founder and creative director of DBO Agency. I think of myself as a brand strategist, I love everything about branding. My goal is to ensure that every Nigerian and African business has an online presence, one they can be proud of and connect to other parts of the world. Besides branding, I like to travel, do adventurous things, read and invest. I really like to invest my money. I mean, everybody loves money, but I really love to invest my money.
Bomi: I’m Bomi Odulaja, the Chief of Operations at DBO Agency. I like helping small businesses create a unique brand online, and seeing how our branding helps their business thrive. I like watching movies, traveling, going out but also staying in and recently, trying new food.
What has been your financial culture like?
Osa: My dad was very instrumental in my financial culture, he taught me how to save very early in life, I was one of those children that had kolos (piggy banks) that break at Christmas. I’m obsessed with savings so much that I deprive myself of things just so I can save, but I’m unlearning that now. I’m very strict on my budget, I have a % for savings, investment and also set aside a small % for spending, you know- work hard, play hard. And I always share with my friends and family members when I come across savings & investment platforms.
Bomi: I’m the opposite of that. I say I will do something but it never actually works out that way, something always comes up. Until recently, I just made my first investment in real estate, despite saying it for years. I think I need to have a good savings culture like Osa. When it comes to savings, I’m the opposite too. I always have something I need to buy, sometimes it’s for personal enjoyment, but other times it’s for emergencies, yeahh, I know I can do with a better saving and budgeting culture and I’m trying to work towards it.
Yeahh, Rome wasn’t built in a day, so there’s still time.
Bomi: Yess, thank you, now I feel very motivated.
Tell us about your business? What is it about? Why did you start your business?
Osa & Bomi: DBO – Designed by Osa, began with Osa as a freelancer five years ago and then became bigger, bringing in Bomi and two years ago, we decided to make it official by registering the business. We are a full-service branding agency – from inception of your idea to continuity, which means social media management, logo design, web design, SEO, digital marketing services whether big or small business and we will help you create your brand identity and brand voice. We also do media buying – billboards, radio.etc. setting you up with just your idea to continuity, social media management, and even media buying, if you feel you don’t need the other digital services, we help you with billboards, google ads, digital ads and so much more.
What’s been one of the hardest times in your business and how did you manage it?
Bomi: In the beginning, it was difficult getting clients to trust our brand, that we knew what we were doing, especially as a small agency with no connections. This has taken us a bit longer to grow the business and get more clients, but we stuck at what we were doing, increased our awareness online, redefined our brand and towards the end of last year, we started seeing results – increased visibility, awareness and more clients; this gave us confidence in our work.
Osa: Bomi is right in what she said and I think this is still being worked on. Because where we are now, people will rather work with a freelancer because it’s cheaper or they will want to work with a company that’s big and established. As an in-between, there is this fear that either you’re not going to get the work done or not going to get them more marketing which is in fact not true, as getting recognition comes from the expertise of a person not the size of their agency. But one thing we do at DBO, is to take our client on the journey from start to finish. And this has helped us lately with people trusting us more with their business.
How did you manage your finances before & after Bamboo?
Osa: At first, I was making the biggest mistakes most business owners make, which is not separating my personal finance from the business finance, so it looks like you’re making money but not so much. But with the recent influx of apps available, I have been able to track my projects and when payments are made with Wave app.
Also, I registered the business, created a bank account and now I’m thinking of doing more stock investment on behalf of the company.
Yeahh, that’s good! And when your stocks yield high increase, you can give your staff bonus
Osa: You know what I mean! Do TGIFs and Bomi can buy more things.
Bomi: Yup, definitely.
So, Bomi over to you.
Bomi: For me, I save on apps but when the need arises, I always take it out and spend. But when I started Bamboo, when I saw that I own 0.0001% of Microsoft, I didn’t want to take the money out because it makes me feel more valuable. With stocks, you feel like you have something more valuable than money unlike a savings platform where you know you can take the money out whenever you need it. I’m currently working on making a conscious effort. And with the newsletters Bamboo always sends, it reminds me to invest.
Osa: I follow Bamboo’s Watchlist like crazy, when it pops on my phone, I immediately go through it to see what stocks to buy, which is up and I’m a big fan of Apple, so the minute I signed up on Bamboo, that was the first stock I bought.
What are some of the best things about your business that separates you from the competition?
Osa: Because we take our clients on the journey with us, I can confidently say that whoever works with DBO Agency, ends up learning more about their business and them as a business owner, we tend to make you a part of it, regardless of how big or little the service we are offering. We have a consultation process that requests your goals, dreams and aspirations for your brand and we input this in creating a brand identity for the client. At DBO, we are very present throughout the process, we build relationships with everyone we work with and we do that with our staff also. We want people to work with DBO and at DBO.
Bomi: To add to that, we also give our clients clarity on their ideas, help them realize what they want and what should be. Going above and beyond for our clients, even though it requires us working extra, no matter how much was paid is also our watchword.
That’s really Amazing! Wishing DBO Agency all the very best!
Thank you very much for your time, we enjoyed this.
