Young entrepreneurs rising to meet challenges in business
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By Buhushika Kumarage
Being a young entrepreneur has its challenges in this day and age and this week the Mirror Magazine reached out to a few such entrepreneurs who’ve risen to meet these challenges and continue with their operations.
From fluffy pillows to artistic ornaments and flashy jewellery to chic shoes and bags, Ashmini Perera has specialized in the art of selling captivating home décor and accessories. She runs two Instagram pages based on her two businesses named @homedecor.sl and @pretty.in.accessories.Having an eye for creative fashion and home decorations she launched her own businesses focused on the same niches. She maintains a close connection with her customers to understand and meet their needs and requirements. Her products are mainly imported from the USA, Singapore, and Canada.
The import bans have meant adhering to higher taxes and longer clearance time. “It has been a tense and difficult situation for every aspect of the business due to the current situation. I have to find alternative methods to ensure the best and fastest service”. With that said Ashmini was forced to limit the importation of a number of items owing to price fluctuations with the exchange rate. But despite the challenges, she still remains passionate, about providing her customers with the most charming home decorations and accessories at a reasonable price and plans to expand her line to cosmetics and maybe even launch her own website. There isn’t an anime fan in Sri Lanka who hasn’t heard of Yamato One. Their shop in Jana Jaya City is a paradise for fans of Naruto, Dragon Ball, Attack on Titan and many more Japanese manga and anime. Clinton de Krester started this business as an event vendor in 2016 and launched a store in 2018, and ever since then their store has become a go to place for anime fans. Their products include figures, posters, apparel, plastic model kits and accessories imported straight from the home of anime, Japan and several other Asian countries. With the import ban, it has become difficult not only to import products as before but also tomake payments to suppliers overseas. A spokesperson for the store said, “Most small-scale business owners are facing the same struggle and hardship as it is beyond anyone’s control.”
TecRoot is a place that has captivated an audience of gaming and tech enthusiasts with sleek designed audio and gaming gadgets from brands such as PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Razer, Sennheiser, AudioEngine, Bang & Olufsen, Bose and many more imported from Asia, Middle East, and Europe. TecRoot was founded by Safwan Mansoor and Aman Imthiyaz. Safwan is an Oracle Certified ERP Consultant, entrepreneur and a professional gamer and Aman is a professional creative designer with a marketing background, and together they launched their store in 2018, in Bambalapitiya to be a hub for all audio and gaming needs. With the imposed import ban it has become challenging to meet the timely demands of customers with the official release of devices. “We also sourced certain products immediately upon official worldwide release for users to join in the hype. Now, meeting this requirement is not possible.” With their market research team working day and night to find solutions for this unexpected hurdle, they have started taking pre-orders for specific products so they can source them once the bans are lifted. They have also taken alternative modes such as Gaming and Audio related subscription plans.
To meet the present challenges they are educating and raising awareness among customers to understand the value spike of the products they currently own instead of upgrading to the latest products. They are currently exploring alternative payment options, and polishing their delivery services, and hoping to find ways to introduce and educate young tech enthusiasts to a wide scope of brands and products that will not only entertain but also inspire them to innovate.
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