Bibi Khan is an unfussy 30-year-old woman whose life – at least much of it – is taken up by the beauty business. From her 2 Public Road, Albouystown premises, she runs Lisa’s Beauty Shoppe. When she is not either behind the counter or engaging some over-fussy customer, she is pressing her skills as a trained makeup artist into service seeking to further enhance the appearance of the women who seek her out.
The secret of the growth of Lisa’s Beauty Shoppe, Bibi believes, is that over the years, she has taken the time to carefully assess her clientele so that she has now become proficient at offering her customers the budget-friendly but effective items that they need. She believes, she says, that “every woman should feel beautiful. I don’t think that women should have to pay through their noses to look good”.
Lisa’s Beauty Shoppe is an enterprise that has grown by hard graft. Family members who travel or who live overseas have chipped in, staying abreast of the beauty industry in order to help her acquire the products with the best reputations which, at the same time, boast accessible prices.
Valentine’s Day this year will mark the fourth anniversary of the creation of her business and she intends to build a marketing initiative around that coincidence.
Over time, Bibi says, Lisa’s Beauty Shoppe has acquired a reputation for pleasing customer service. It is, she says, hard work, the challenge reposing in the what, all too frequently, is the challenging task of responding to a bewildering array of likes, dislikes and idiosyncrasies.
Over time Bibi has expanded her knowledge of the sector by participating in public events including Beauty Shows. “Beauty Expos”, she says, “have given me the opportunity to meet with beauty experts and I am positive that there will be more experiences of that kind, going forward,” she says.
In order to attend these events Bibi entrusts the shop to her sister and employee along with her husband, Mohamed Faadil Khan, a jeweller. The two have been married for seven years. She credits these two, along with her mother as the collective driving force behind the enterprise’s achievements up to this time.
She is, she says, enormously proud of the fact that her client base is drawn from across the races, the challenge reposing in responding to what, often, are entirely
different preferences. Over time, she says, she has been able to meet and surmount those challenges.
Her reputation, she believes, has been considerably enhanced through her talents as a makeup artist. Last November, Bibi worked with local fashion icon Sonia Noel at the Style Mission event at the Pegasus Hotel. “I enjoy those kinds of events, she says. I learn more and they improve my skills. She credits the acquisition of her makeup skills to Tenisha Garnett-Billington, a local specialist who currently travels between Guyana and the United Kingdom. These days Bibi teaches makeup artistry to individual students.
Growth and expansion are integral parts of Bibi’s plan for the future. Those plans include investment in a complex that will accommodate her beauty products enterprise as well as her tutoring and makeup services.
Her plans, however, do not stop there. She envisages that when completed, the Complex will offer clothing and other accessories.
