Two and a half years after its launch as a modest cosmetics enterprise in Parika Market, Ganesh Fashions is, its twenty nine year-old Proprietrix Shondell Ragnauth says, just about ready to move to the ‘next level.’ Not that the enterprise is about to entirely abandon the base from which it has grown a market that now extends beyond the Region in which it got started; but according to Shondell, the enterprise is now sufficiently certain of its ability to compete on a bigger playing field.
Ganesh Fashions is about cosmetics and makeup and Shondell has now become sufficiently confident in her ability to trade on what has become a fiercely competitive urban market to have ventured into the clothing business and has moved to take advantage of what has become a widely popular on-line trading culture. More than that, she has made a decision to expand her enterprise into the capital. It is a move that points unerringly to a level of confidence in product supply arrangements that allow her to openly market her ability to supply high quality products products at up to 50% less than what other enterprises ask.
The Stabroek Business had first encountered Ganesh Fashions at the Giftland Mall a few weeks ago where her’s was one of fifty small businesses participating in local Fashion Designer Sonia Noel’s 50th birthday ‘expo.’ It was here that she had first told us about her passion for ‘a bigger stage,’ an urban market that had experienced a significant burst of growth in recent years.
Sustained growth, built around Ganesh Fashion’s use of on-line shopping to expand the range of its products whilst simultaneously growing its market into Georgetown has persuaded Shondell to explore the possibility of creating a permanent outlet in the capital. That, currently, is her one of her biggest priorities.
So confident is Shondell in the competitiveness of her prices that she has moved to create a clientele in Georgetown and has been able to press her husband into service to support her in doing deliveries in the capital.
While her confidence in the competitiveness of her prices has persuaded her that establishing an outlet in Georgetown is ‘the right move’ at this time she is, she says, chastened by the costs associated with renting business premises in a capital where prices have become hinged to a transformed by a transformed commercial culture. What is clear however is that Shondell appears to have made up her mind to ‘take the plunge’……… so much so that she is currently awaiting a response to a loan application. If confidence has anything to do with Shondell moving forward she is almost certainly a candidate for considerable success.
