A 26-year-old graduate from FBC quit her job to set up a retail shoe startup in her house.

Lucia Kamara graduated with a degree in Economics from Fourah Bay College in 2017 and worked as a finance manager at Cleaning and Pest Control Services for a year. While working there, she started coursework to become certified as a chartered accountant.

But that wasn’t all. She also launched a home-based retail shoe business that same year. Lucia’s Shoe Room sells shoes from Britain and America.

Kamara left her job at a Cleaning and Pest Control Services to become a full time entrepreneur because she felt that her job limited her shoe customer relationships.

“I did not feel bad for leaving my job to become a full time entrepreneur. My shoe business was something I had always wanted to do, ” says Kamara. 

When she had the job, customers who wanted to visit the Shoe Room could not because Kamara was at work. This slowed her business and something had to give–the job.

She didn’t give up on her ACCA course though, it offered her flexibility.

 “I have time to study because it is an online program.  I have a tutor that comes to my house and I am able to attend to my customers, ” says Kamara.

She describes herself as a shoe lover with a unique taste in shoes. “My passion for shoes makes me spend a lot of time on shoe sites online checking for the latest shoe brands to bring to Sierra Leone. It brings me joy.”

Even though the pandemic slowed down her sales, she says things are starting to go back to normal.

 “When people refer to my business as one of the best shoe stores in Sierra Leone, that’s a big achievement for me”, says Kamara whose goal is to be the best known shoe shop in Sierra Leone

“With the help of my father, we are building a shoe shop on the main road near my house and this will enable me to move the shoe room from the house,”  says Kamara.

Next up for Lucia’s Shoe Room is a website to sell shoes not just in Sierra Leone but worldwide.