Fast-forward to 2024, and what once started as a side hustle has now made Rokeya Khanum an eye-watering six figures in less than a year.
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Rokeya, who also lived in a council house and was on benefits at some point in her life, has now become one of the fastest-growing fashion brands in the world, with Khanum’s offering shoppers affordable luxury clothing.
In her own words, Rokeya has achieved the goals she once referred to as ”impossible”, going from being jobless for over a year to stocking her garments in Harvey Nichols.
Born to parents from Bangladesh and born in East London, Rokeya was one of the seven kids in the family and always found herself focussing on her education ”and wanting to be something”.
Growing up, she revealed in a chat with Grace Beverley in the Working Hard, Hardly Working podcast, she loved Art and English Literature, but never really had an idea of where she wanted to be headed after education.
At the age of 16, for example, she had aspirations of becoming an air hostess – but all of that changed when she fell pregnant and gave birth prematurely aged 17.
From there, she was then made homeless, dropped out of college, moving from hostel to hostel, and struggling to make ends meet.”
”I had my son prematurely and I think that was like an awakening in my mind.
”All of these things are happening, I’m living in hostels – what is this life?
”This is not the life I want for myself, it’s not a life I want for my son.”
Desperate to not ”fall into the stigma as a typical teen mum, especially as an ethnic minority,” Rokeya then enrolled back into education, studying law.
With a baby, that was difficult – but the young mum ”had an end goal in mind”.
”Yes, I had a child young. But I can still do everything people would hope me to do.”
Sadly for the aspiring lawyer-to-be, there was soon another hurdle in the way – being unable to afford a legal practice course.
”The whole law ambition just went out of the window,” she recalled, explaining that afterwards she found herself working typical 9-5 in various industries.
”I found it very hard to juggle working, as well as attending to his needs as a lone parent – it wasn’t the easiest.”
Unemployed for 18 months
”I got made redundant from one of my jobs and then I just couldn’t find another job, and it was crazy.
”It was the most challenging time – I did not have a job for 18 months – 18 months!”
She went on: ”I’m not that kind of person who just sits and willows, and is not gonna figure out a solution and how to find a job.”
At some point, finances had become so bad, Rokeya almost got evicted from her flat as she couldn’t afford to pay rent, as she’d been using all of her savings from the previous jobs to survive.
10 easy side hustles for stay-at-home mums
- Dog walker,
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- Mystery shopper,
- House sitter,
- Online surveys,
- Personalised gift creator,
- Translator.
Determined to come up with a plan, one day the single mum realised there was a gap in the market for affordable luxury wear – and without much hesitation, Rokeya went on Google and found a business plan template.
But as she was downloading the plan in a random internet café, a ”crazy” thing happened – she got a whopping five job offers all at once.
The now 37-year-old took the job with the highest-paying salary – but was still working on the business idea on the side.
”I needed money – that’s how Khanum’s started.”
Sending £180 to a random manufacturer in India
The concept behind the brand was born after the fashionista fell in love with the H&M collaboration with the high-end brand Balmain around 2015.
After coming up with a rough design – an embellished jacket that was a ”modernised” take on the traditional Bangladeshi gear – Rokeya took to the streets of East London to find a store that would make it.
An astronomical £900 – that’s how much one place was charging the aspiring entrepreneur, who just wanted to make some extra cash on the side.
One day, whilst on the bus, Rokeya had a scroll on Google to find manufacturers in India – and sent £180 to a company she’d never worked with.
The sample came back and the style enthusiast used her salary to cover the costs of her very first photoshoot – but little did she know the success that would follow afterwards.
“It took off really fast, thanks to the domino effect of influencers. Back then the influencer game was still very young, I got in touch with three names and asked if they would want to borrow a sample jacket and return it to me,” she told in a chat with Evening Standard.
“They did, uploaded mirror selfies and it went mad – influencers from Australia, New York, and all over the world got in touch with me, asking to collaborate.
”By then sales took off – I built up a six-figure turnover within seven months – and I was able to gift other influencers clothes in return for posts. It was all just from social media.”
Rokeya made the decision to quit her job 18 months after starting the business, and it wasn’t long until the mum saw sales take off in the Middle East after she launched ads on Facebook.
Although the business faced some challenges, especially during lockdown when the demand for evening wear was low, that hasn’t proven to be enough to stop Rokeya – or Khanum’s, with a turnover of a whopping £860,000 in 2022.