We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hameed Odunewu. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hameed below.

Hameed, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

When I first started my business, I had no resources to hire a team so I decided to ask my friends to help me with my plan. The best part about working with friends is that you already have a trusting relationship that makes starting a new business easier. The problem with working with friends is that they may not be as skilled as needed and also it is tough maintaining boundaries within your friendship. As my business scaled, I was able to recruit people who were interested in the music and creative industry and was able to blend them with my already established group of friends that worked with me. This was the best formula for me to be productive because it was a balance of working with my trusted friends while still having the insight of those who were well skilled in the industry. If I could do things differently, I would have at least hired one outside person from the initial start of my business so I could work with them while my friends that were helping could further their skillset within the industry.

Hameed, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started my business in undergrad at UofI simply as a music collective of artist and musicians who worked together. As I went along, I realized that we needed more than that to really push the music we were making and wanted to have more in-house resources. I then expanded the collective to graphic designers, videographers, and social media experts. In college no one really had the money it took to produce an album the right way so our goal was to essentially be a one shop stop that provided everything the artists needed at an affordable rate. In order to promote our artist, we started selling branded merchandise, that merchandise took off better than expected and at one point became the forefront of the business. The selling of merchandise is what enabled us to open up the store front and studio and continues to be a main part of our business. Nothing makes me happier than being stopped in the street because someone recognizes or likes the merch I am wearing.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

For the first three years of the business, no money was made and I was losing the faith of my team. I was really tempted to pack it up and just focus on my legal career, even to the point where I stopped doing anything related to the business for a length of time. However, I truly believed that there was a market for what I wanted to do and that all it took was the right opportunity to show it to people. I took the risk and opened up the storefront without any promise that it would succeed. That risk turned out well because I believe people seeing the brick and motor business really made them understand how serious I was about what I wanted to build.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I’ve learned that people want to feel important and want to know that what they are doing matters. Constantly encouraging my time and thanking them for the efforts has kept the morale high. Additionally rewarding them when they do well for example, when my engineers surpass a certain number of hours in a month, they get a bonus.

Contact Info:

• Website: DopeDreamers.com
• Instagram: @thevillage_OTL
• Twitter: @thevillage_otl

Image Credits
Jeremy Osei