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Sola Ajao
Founder & Owner
“Food is my love language” is more than a slogan for Sola Ajao, owner of Destiny African Market Variety & Wholesale. Those are words to live by as she serves her community with authentic African foods and goods, including her famous homemade moin moin bean cakes. Sola learned to cook while growing up in Nigeria, and when she immigrated to Boston in 1986, she was surprised that she had to travel to New York City to find African spices and foods. That led to her Boston catering business, cooking authentic African dishes for weddings and other events. It thrived for 30+ years, until a serious bout with COVID changed her life. “I prayed that if I survived, I would open my own store,” Sola recalls. She made that dream come true in 2021, opening Destiny African Market to serve the area’s diverse population and Afro-Caribbean communities.
Sola uses Google Workspace to help manage her business, using video calls on Google Meet for teamwork, Docs for recordkeeping, and Sheets to track inventory. Her Google Business Profile identifies Destiny African Market as both a women- and Black-owned business, which helps bring in customers searching for African food. “Like any business, we’re also a digital business,” says Sola’s daughter Adebukola Ajao, digital marketing manager. “People searching for ‘African market’ find our Business Profile. This helps get them in the door. Today, 85% of our calls come from Google.” Now customers from New York and other states come to Sola’s market, and she plans to start selling goods online as part of her effort to bring African food into mainstream American food culture. Because community is family, Sola donates food to local charitable organizations. “Food is how we show people we love them,” Sola says. “Google helps us let people know we are here.”