Ben Bohannon

2. Building a Fashion Brand and Creating Opportunities for Women across the Globe

Episode 2

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The DCKAP Community believes in reading, a lot! “Readers are Leaders” is the numero uno quote you can find if you step into our office. Next to reading comes listening. With the world progressing faster every moment, the advent of podcasts has been on the rise so that people can listen on-the-go.

“The more people you inspire, the more people will inspire you.”

– Simon Sinek

We’ve been looking to contribute to the eCommerce community and felt there is no better time than this to move a little close to our fond dream.

“You get more, not when you take, but when you give.”

The DCKAP Community is happy to announce that we’re launching a brand new show – Driven: Ecommerce at Work. This eCommerce podcast brings in conversations with industry experts on technology, entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, and everything else you need to run a successful online store.

The show is now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts, and everywhere else.

Each week, our eCommerce experts will bring in intriguing interviews and insightful conversations with the leaders and pioneers from the world of eCommerce to uncover the stories behind what it takes to seek, scale, and sustain a successful online business.

Today’s Guest

Ben Bohannon

For our first episode, we’ve brought in Ben Bohannon this week. Ben runs one of the finest fashion brands in Portland – Sseko Designs – uses fashion to create opportunities for women across the globe.

An excellent and first reason for me to start our show with Ben is his purpose in starting this company. He profoundly believes the purpose will drive value in the future economy. Through their employment scholarship program, he and his wife, Liz Bohannon, the co-founder of Sseko, have enabled 100’s women to continue to their University.

Bloomberg Businessweek has named Sseko one of the top social enterprises in America, and its products have been featured in Vogue, Fitness, Fast Company, Huffington Post, and more.

One thing that Ben stresses out is “Testing, Testing, Testing.” You always need to test it out; otherwise, there is no point in dreaming. Just take that extra leap and see what works best for you.

Sseko Designs - Uganda 2020

Show Notes

  • [3:15] How Sseko was started?
  • [7:12] Handling the manufacturing facilities
  • [14:27] How Product Customization can change the way you interact with your customers?
  • [16:18] How to address the shipping challenges when you have the facility in Oversees (Uganda)?
  • [22:22] How launching a direct to sales platform on Magento helped their business scale.
  • [26:00] How important is funding and do you really need one? Ben shares his experience in going to the Shark Tank pitch.
  • [36:18] How are they handling the current COVID19 situation?
  • [41:33] When is the right time to start your own company?

If you’ve never explored the wonderful world of podcasts, it is time you do, to step into this beautiful listening journey to inspire dreamers to do and doers to dream.

Listen and let us know how it is. We’d love to hear back from you all. And don’t forget to share if you’ve liked it. Let’s learn and grow, together.

References and Show links

And by the way, I’m your host Shiva Kumaar, heading the strategy for DCKAP’s digital product suites. New episodes every Friday. All you need to do is, just tune in to finetune your expertise. Subscribe on your favorite podcast channels.

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Episode 2