Arandis entrepreneur blooms

IN the spirit of all great entrepreneurs, Arandis resident Ellie Nowases saw a gap in the market and took it.

And like most great entrepreneurs, she did not succeed at the first try.
While still working at a garment manufacturing company in 2000, Nowases opened her first business, the Ada Huiga laundry.
She thought that the single men living in the mining town would appreciate having such a service, as they preferred to play football and socialise at the weekend rather than do the laundry.
But the revenue from the business was not sufficient for her to leave her job, and she soon came up with another idea.
‘I discovered that when it comes to large social functions like wedding receptions, birthdays and company parties, customers did not want to buy but preferred to hire flower arrangements and other decorations. So I responded to this need,’ said Nowases.
She opened a flower-hiring business and called it Flower Garden, marketing her services at events like the first Arandis Expo in 2008.
Her first major job was supplying a sports event held by the Rössing Foundation and her business blossomed from there.
With her revenue now increasing, she started following business development advice from SMEs Compete.
SMEs Compete is a consultancy firm that provides business growth and employment creation support to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Namibia.
It is funded by the German Development Service (Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst).
The consultancy has been going since 2002 with support from various sponsors and has helped over 6 000 people and 700 businesses.
Britt Adonis from the company said they ‘provided business mentorship from all angles’ to Nowases.
This included training and workshops in bookkeeping, marketing and ‘basically all things business related’.
The NGO is also helping her with materials for her advertising campaign.
After establishing her synthetic flower business, Nowases was finally able to resign from her job and concentrate fully on her two fledgling businesses.
Her business strategy is to streamline and fine-tune the operation of her businesses.
But this is not stopping her from already thinking of the future.
Like any good entrepreneur, Nowases has plans to expand her little empire.
‘I have seen that customers hold a lovely function but then fail to capture special moments and the memory is lost forever,’ she said.
This has given her the idea to launch her own photography service, meaning that she will soon be able to cater for all parts of a function.