The Founder of ADILI Asel Adil on How to Quit Your Corporate Job to Start a Business

As one of the top experts in the financial sphere, the founder and creative director of the ADILI brand, Asel Adil, tells how to launch a brand of Kazakhstani accessories, make it famous and eventually establish its own production in the country.

You can also read this article in Russian (на русском языке).

Гульмира Кусаинова
20 августа 2019

Асель Адил

How to open a business during the financial crisis

The idea came about when I was looking for work following my graduation. For almost a year I could not find anything — I just graduated from the university when a financial crisis broke out. I had to do something, so I started working on ADILI.

Initially I studied at KIMEP, after which I spent one year аbroad as part of the Bolashak program abroad, and when I returned to Kazakhstan, my sister and I began to discuss all the possibilities of starting our own business. My first thought was — why not start with accessories? First of all, it was difficult to sew clothes with a national ornament. Secondly, I thought that a better idea would be to make stylish and colorful accessories that could complement the look. Therefore, the first products of ADILI were leather bags and scarves. The first thing that I came up with was a red leather clutch. Then we started making scarves.

The brand name ADILI is named after our father, whose name is Adil. My sister's and my surname also comes from my father's name. We have put a lot of thought into choosing our brand name and looked at a variety of beautiful words in the Kazakh language. Eventually, one night I came up with ADILI.