Shanae started both of her first businesses in 2022. Photo credit: @emmaelizabeth.jpg
Running a designer-dress rental business and a make-up business isn’t all glitz and glamour, it’s a lot of hard work, too.
Graduate Diploma in Marketing student Shanae Barton started her first businesses - SB Dress Hire and Make Up by Shanae - in 2022.
Shanae saw the business as a way to build up her own wardrobe, while also making money from renting to people who might not otherwise be able to afford to purchase and wear the top-of-the-line dresses themselves.
“You only wear them once; the dress is going out on multiple occasions to different people and they’re all getting to enjoy it,” she says.
“It’s also a bit more sustainable too, rather than buying multiple dresses for multiple events.”
The dress-hire business is going well now but took a while to ramp up.
“You come into a market, and you’ve got build your name up, build up your reputation for people to trust you, and also, with dress rental obviously you’re renting out designer garments and they’re expensive to buy.
“You’re not going to start with 50 different dresses to rent out, you’ve got to slowly build up your collection.”
Initially with fewer dresses available fewer people were interested but as the collection grew, so too did business; “that’s when you get more traction”.
Shanae's advice to anyone looking to start their own business is 'just do it' and be prepared to work hard. Photo credit: @emmaelizabeth.jpg
Shanae says she’s always had an interest in making art and during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 she was able to channel her creativity into various make-up looks. She started an Instagram account documenting her looks at the behest of her friends, and in 2022 she started taking clients.
Her make-up business is also doing well.
“Especially during ball season, you’ve got all the school balls.”
She gets a lot of clients attending 21st birthday parties, too.
Shanae’s advice to any students looking to start their own business it to “just do it” but be prepared to work hard.
“I think a big misconception, especially for rental business, is that it’s super easy. And while it’s not the hardest job in the world, it’s definitely not easy.”
While the majority of Shanae’s customers are amazing, there have been the odd few situations where she has unhappy customers which she says gives her the chance to grow as a business owner.
“You’ve got to deal with customers who aren’t always going to be happy, unfortunately you can’t please everyone.
“You have to try and navigate ways to come to a solution that is suitable for both parties. I do think they’re good learning opportunities.”
Another consideration with rental businesses such as hers, renting expensive goods, is they cost a lot of money.
“At the start, you’re not getting bookings every weekend, so you’re investing a lot of your own money.”
New business owners need to be prepared to invest their own money, and then keep investing any money made back into the business to keep it growing, Shanae says.
“It may be a while before you can actually make a profit.
“And it’s very time consuming. I think people are like ‘oh, self-employed, you get to work whatever hours you want’. But I think, when you’re self-employed you work more than you would if you were working for someone else, because time is money.”
Kōrero by internal communications adviser, Koren Allpress