Ruby Ninah -How Business Cards Only Helped This Young Entrepreneur to Build Her Entertainment Business

When we think about music, what comes to mind is the successful musicians with hit songs and how much they made in their albums. Success in music has been left to mean famous, trending, collaborations, giving back to society and sometimes even scandals. But today we tell a story of one Ruby Ninah who interprets music differently and how she managed to kick off a different kind of music career and is doing very well at it.

Ruby, a musician, is also the founder and CEO of Ruby Ninah Entertainment (RNE) a company that specializes in live music for corporate events,  dinners and gala events. Her main genre being JAZZ.  RNE was started in 2016 with nothing but a couple of business cards and a bunch of friends. Ruby says that what pushed her into starting her own company was because she found herself in a place of lack. No job, no money and that right there became her defining moment. A recipe to launch into the unknown and believe that it will work out alright.

One thing about Ruby is that she does not subscribe to the division of music in terms of secular or gospel. ”I do not comply to the idea of dividing music into gospel or secular because I think its very relative. I believe every other profession never ties down someone to the two. We do not have gospel bakeries or secular butcheries. Therefore, for me, my call is to sing songs bigger than secular or gospel. I sing songs that speak to the souls. Songs that heal and restore the souls of people.” With this, most of her songs have an emancipating value that can be heard anywhere, which is a plus for business.

It goes without saying that many business entities have challenges and this Ruby’s is not an exception. Considering jazz music has been male dominated for a long time, gaining access to potential clients can be very challenging. Coupling that along with her potential clients stereotyping her as a struggling artists because she chose to do live gigs as opposed to doing music like other artists has been quite a journey. Also her partners have been a challenging batch over the years.

Ruby tells a story of a time she had a gig and her sound guys decided to bail on the day of the event because she couldn’t pay deposit despite the fact that they had agreed to settle the bill after the gig was done. ”Despite these challenges I have learnt to be very objective about what happens. I go in with a mindset of doing business and whatever happens in between is a lesson to learn,” she says.

One of the biggest gigs for Ninah was on 20th September 2018 because for the very first time she got an opportunity to network with so many people. ”It was my first cooperate event and I feel like the connections I created there have been the ones that have enabled me to get better. Because some of them called me for more work. I also handled cash for the first time which was also a great thing.”

One of the things that motivates Ninah to keep building towards making her business bigger is the fulfillment she gets when she is on that stage. ”There is a way I feel when am singing. Its electric. Just being able to carry a crowd and touch their lives through the sound I release is everything to me,” she says. She looks forward to be an ultimate service provider for live jazz music and manage artists to the best of her ability.

For Ruby the music industry can do better in the side of management. One thing that is important for Ruby is having good managers who can continue to build the brand and sell the artist as they focus on doing what they do best which is sing. The industry should be open and get rid of the ‘I want it all mentality’. It is important to have professional people who can help you run your career and build it up other than a person as an artist being their everything. Also, the classification of songs could kill the the spirit behind the song. The industry should give more room for the songs to find a proper footing and be expressed in their rawest form without trying to classify into gospel or secular, but rather receive the song for what

”My mantra, hmm I could mention two. One is from the bible: Psalm 116:7 and it says:Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. This means everything to me because i can connect my faith to what i do and be assured that God will always come through for me no matter what happens. The second is this, the world owes you nothing. So go out there and do you and be unapologetic for it. There will never be another you. So live your life to the full. And that is what Ruby and RNE function on.”

Five things Ruby says have made her thrive in her business this far are:

1. Stay true to yourself

Be authentic and live life being the best version of yourself. At the end of the day you only have one life and you cannot afford to live it trying to be someone you are not happy with.

 2. Believe in your magic

There is magic that happens when we all do what we are called to do. Believe in it and do it.

3. Don’t take it personally it’s business

Sometimes as you do business, people will offend you. Do not take it personally. It is business, things go wrong. Be easy and let go.

4. Network

If you are going to be effective and do well in business, you have to have a good connection with people. Create good rapport with everyone. People will always remember how you made them feel and either recommend you or not.

 5.Be nice

It doesn’t matter who it is. Always be nice to everyone. You never know who you will need to help you in future.

Story done by Arlene Ayiera for Inversk on March 13 2019.