Meet Courtney Adeleye, a former nurse who has transformed herself as an entrepreneur. Adeleye stated that while working as a nurse, she was inspired to start her own business in the beauty and wellness sector by her desire to help people live healthier lives.
Aside from her interest, she was influenced by her personal experience looking for items suitable for treating natural hair.
“There were not many brands that used natural ingredients and specialized in healthy hair growth at the same time,” Adeleye told Entrepreneur. “So, I started mixing my own products at home and infused them with vitamins, nutrients and healthy ingredients.”
She started recording YouTube videos of her DIY hair care routine and quickly gained a significant following who were interested in how she goes about her hair invention. They also purchased her products, which she created with $500 of her own money.
When she discovered she was getting more orders, she decided to turn her homemade haircare routine into a full-time business.
According to Entrepreneur, this resulted in the development of The Mane Choice, a hair care solution for healthy locks that includes solutions devoid of mineral oil, petrolatum, parabens, sulfates, and formaldehyde.
Adeleye said that in the first three years of her home-based business, she sold $10 million in items and collaborated with more than 60,000 merchants across the United States, with the goal of reaching $100 million in sales and an IPO by 2019.
According to Adeleye, black entrepreneurial women are frequently branded in ways that impede their business’s growth. Despite her varied marketing, she says she is constantly asked if her items are solely for black women.
According to statistics, more than 11% of all beauty clients are Black; nonetheless, Black brands account for only 2.5% of the $60 billion beauty industry. To make matters worse, according to McKinsey & Company, there is “a persistent myth in the beauty industry that Black-brand products can only be sold to Black consumers.”
Because of these hurdles, Adeleye says she is very purposeful about exhibiting diversity across her businesses, assuring the business’s growth potential on all levels. In 2022, the nurse-turned-entrepreneur established Olbali, a health-focused direct-selling company, to house The Mane Choice as well as her other private brands, which include Cool Coffee Clique and Foolproof Body.
