AFTER young Ms Mavis Tamakloe graduated with an HND in Fashions and Textiles from the Kumasi Polytechnic in 2002, the urge on her to go into enterprenuership started pushing from within. This urge caused her to set up her My Time Garments Enterprise in Madina to craft African wares from locally produced fabrics for both males and females.
But two years into running the business, Ms Tamakloe said the difficulties in the sector caused her to shut down for awhile.
Taking the GRAPHIC BUSINESS through events leading to the setting up of her My Time Garments at Madina, near the Social Welfare in Accra, Ms Tamakloe said “I later realised my designs were not moving fast as I had expected, partly because I wasn’t having the right equipment and resources to produce to meet customers expectations.”
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| Ms Tamakaloe talks to the Graphic Business's Maxwell Adombila Akalaare about her enterprise |
Aside the lack of resources to acquire the necessary equipment for optimum production, Ms Tamakloe said “I also lacked the practical experience on the job and more importantly, the contacts and links for my products”.
Though Ms Tamakloe agreed those start-up challenges were daring enough to get her part ways with entreprenuership, she said “I did not give up” but rather took a strategic decision that has today become the bedrock of her enterprise.
“If you are fresh from the classroom, there are a lot of things that you always would not know. You normally do not know how to get customers and what those customers want. This job is not about what you the designer wants but want the customer desires,” Ms Tamakloe observed.
As a result, she said “I decided to stop running my own business for sometime to enable me work with another fashion designer, Esuru Garments so that I could acquire the needed experiences and resources needed to run my business.”
“In this world, if you know what you want and work hard towards it, you will always get there,” Ms Tamakloe stated adding that it was her commitment to riviving and running her business that dominated her mind at the time she was working at Esuru Garments.
With her temporarily abandoned enterprise still in mind, Ms Tamakloe said she thus adopted necessary steps including saving the little monies she received to enable her revive her business.
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| Check me and my stuffs out, says Ms Mavis |
“I was using my off days to do extra jobs that could earn me extra income. I ‘m also good in braiding of hair and thus used that experience to generate additional income,” she memorised.
Two years after, Ms Tamakloe said her extra duties and income as well as her commitment to savings paid off leading to the successful rejuvination of her My Time Garments.
Currently, she said her garment enterprise at Madina produces all kinds of female and male wares from fabrics that are occassionally matched with beads.
In addition to the garment manufacturing, Ms Tamakloe said the enterprise also operates a hair salon named My Time Beauty Salon.
GOOD WORK SPEAKS
Ghana’s fashion industry is virtually saturated following the frequent springing up of fashion houses that offer almsot the same services.
Despite this development which many would have expected to benefit the rising number of fashion lovers in the country, most fashion lovers still have a course to complain; the designs are the same, they lack proper finishing and quality and can therefore not match their foreign competitors.
But not all the designers are the same as some have an urge for detail, an instinct to send a message and a desire to make a mark.
According to Ms Tamakloe, her My Time Garments is one of such few fashion designs currently hoping to put professional touches in whatever wares it produces.
With her three-year old classroom knowledge in fashion and texties at the Kumasi poly, two years learning under a renowned fashion designer and now eight years into running her fashion shop, Ms Tamakloe said “I have now gained enough experience that keeps reflecting in the products I produce.
“Even my former employer do bring me orders to do for her at a fee simply because she knows I can do it better.”
She added that though her crafted wares are currently sold and marketed within Accra, her good works had earned her customers outside Accra.
WAKE THE SLEEPING TEXTILE COMPANIES
On the challenges confronting the country’s textile industry and the designers, Ms Tamakloe said “it is difficult getting the fabrics that we normally need and that delays our work.”
She also mentioned the fluatuating nature of cotton, the raw material from which fabrics are made as another major challenge.
“Sometime ago, the issue of no cotton in the system brought about lean supply of fabrics in the country and this caused most fashion companies to run out of materials”, she recounted adding that the situation had even led to the collapse of some textile companies in the country.
She thus called on the relevant authorities to increase cotton production in the country “so that some of the sleeping textile companies could wake up and produce to meet the high demand in the system.”
THE FUTURE AND HER ADVICE
In the near future, Ms Tamakloe said “I want to separate My Time Garments from My Time Hair Salon and make the two operate as separate entities.”
She also hopes to come up with a school that could search for and train street children on fashion designs and hair salon activities, an area she said was dear to her heart.
On her adivce to colleague women and enterprenuers, Ms Tamakloe said “let us strive to be tactful in whatever we do, let’s work hard and be commited to our job.
To Ms Tamakloe, “If you are able to work hard and become exceptional, you will always make a mark in life.”
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| The chat continues |
Ms Mavis Tamakloe is on timlouise@yahoo.co.uk
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