By: Saddath Asiamah
Sewing and tailoring is one of the lucrative businesses among Ghanaians more especially Somanya in the Yilo Krobo municipality of the eastern region. As Rite Business has learnt, it is a business that is very simple and easy to establish as all that one needs is to go through the necessary training after which you establish yourself by starting from your house if you do not have enough capital or opening a container if the startup capital is available.
Some tailers and seamstresses in Somanya spoke with Rite FM on their sewing businesses. Madam Ernestina who operates Tinali Fashion Center in Somanya said with a sewing machine and a minimum of Gh c 200, one can establish oneself a sewing center.
According to her, her clients have the option to either come along with their own materials and pay just for her services according to what styles they prefer or prefer their type of clothe for her together with the style they prefer and she charges them accordingly. She said the average cost of her services for her clients who bring their own materials is Gh c 50 and Gh c 100 for those who do not.
Madam Ernestina said proper customer care towards her customers is what draws them to her. She says her business is profitable and she urges young people and the unemployed to engage themselves in it.
She was particularly expectant of the impending Christmas where she hopes business is going to boom, a period she calls their cocoa season.
But it isn’t all rosy. For those of them that use electric sewing machines, the ongoing power crisis is a major challenge. Her clients sometimes come at her because she’s unable to finish the job on time. That is not all; she says pays heavy taxes in the form of the Value Added Tax which she said comes very costly.
The cost of materials is also a bother as clients cannot afford.
Madam Ernestina however has a beef with readymade clothes such as those sold in the shops as well as the second clothes. She thinks a lot of people would these days just walk into a shop or the nearest folk’s line and get a pair of trousers, shirt, dress, etc rather than walk into the shop of a tailor or seamstress.
While acknowledging that people have the right of choice as well as operators of shops also having to make a living, sharing clients with them according to her is a big threat and challenge to them.
source: ritefmonline.org
