4 min read

Quickfire Questions with Toks Aruoture, Founder of The Baby Cot Shop

September 11, 2024

Quickfire Questions with Toks Aruoture, Founder of The Baby Cot Shop

Toks Aruoture is the founder of The Baby Cot Shop, a prestigious baby furniture brand in the heart of Chelsea, London.

Beyond creating beautiful nursery interiors, Toks is passionate about transforming minds through storytelling and writing. Toks helps people identify and overcome limiting beliefs, empowering them to propel forward confidently.

So basically, she transforms living spaces and mindsets. Additionally, she offers coaching services tailored to new business owners starting their entrepreneurial journey, and guide them to manifest their visions.

Before you read, Click here to read the part one of this interview with the founder of The Baby Cot Shop.

What’s the African country that you would love to visit this year and why?

I’d love to visit South Africa. I’ve never been to South Africa. It has a very good image. The richness of the culture itself, the landscape, the wildlife, everything. I really would love to visit South Africa. And actually I’m supposed to go in November, but I don’t know if that’s still gonna happen, but I’d love to visit South Africa.

What’s the most underrated Nigerian food?

I was going to say plantain, but most people know the value of plantain. I would say yam and I think yam is underrated. You can boil it, fry it, pound it, and do so many things with it. And it’s ever so tasty. You can add a little bit of sugar when you boil it and have it with eggs or with mackerel or stew. Definitely yam.

How do you look after yourself in your free time?

I don’t have free time. But how do I look after myself? I read and I write. I do a lot of writing. So my free time is spent journaling, just writing my thoughts out, writing my fears out, writing out my concerns. If you’ve caught me alone at home, my whole household is gone. Especially when my crew go to watch a Marvel movie at the cinema. I love those moments. It’s me, myself and I.

I love Nollywood. Right now I’m hooked on Omoni Oboli’s movies. I’m hooked on anything that has to do with Omoni Oboli’ right now. I have my other favourite ones. I love Kunle Afolayan’s movies as well. So any movies that come out of Africa that’s beautifully done, you’ll find me there.

What has been the most humbling moment in your journey as an entrepreneur?

I would have to say my most recent experience or my most recent lesson was very humbling, which was discovering that I was so wrapped up in myself that I didn’t realize that my staff were going through a challenging season. And it wasn’t about their personal lives, because I asked about that, but I was going through a business season that was just imperfect in every way.

And I thought that I was putting on a brave front and everything looked good on the outside. But I didn’t realize that I was giving off a lot of negative vibes that were affecting them. So it was only through conversation that that came out and it humbled me. Because I realized that I considered myself so much more important than them that I didn’t look at them. I was only looking at my hurt and my difficulty.