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New Image Cushions & Pillows strives for greatness

2022-04-29  Staff Reporter

New Image Cushions & Pillows strives for greatness

   Wilhelmina Iimene 

 

As a Unam entrepreneurial graduate with ability and skills appropriate to run a start-up business, Auguste Angala applied the knowledge she acquired from school to start a business. 

“The boredom of the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 drove me to think outside the box. 

I needed to know what the next step would be, and that was when I read through my school notes to revise what I was taught in school in order to start something for myself,” Angala told VIBEZ!

In search of motivation, she further researched how current successful businesses were established, and came across Salomon’s Knot, which is an ancient Celtic symbol representing man’s union with the divine. This inspired her, and that was the birth of her business. 

It took her about three months to identify and evaluate cushions and pillows as business opportunities, and to cement a foundation for herself in the market. To test the waters, she made knot cushions in July 2020, and when people showed an interest in them, her business ‘New Image Cushions & Pillows’ took off. 

The business makes cushions for weddings, couches, maternity/pregnancy, Christmas décor, Valentine’s gifts as well as personally-embroidered pillows, baby cot bumpers and other related products. Anything cushion-related one can think of, Angala can make, and she makes it from locally-sourced fabric. 

Her biggest challenge while running her business is living in the Goreangab settlement with no electricity, which sets her back when she wants to use her sewing machine. 

“I am really hungry for a better opportunity. I want to get a space that I can use as a workshop, where production will be multiplied 10-fold,” she added. 

However, she is disheartened that although the business is growing, her cushion designs are copied by other creatives. 

“A decorative cushion business is very easy to be copied by anyone in the market, that even clients I have served can copy the artwork. This challenges my creativity and skills to change patterns and artwork almost every month.” 

Notwithstanding this setback, Angala shoulders on and sometimes gets assistance from two people when she has many orders and products to create. Apart from the small working space and lack of electricity, another challenge is that she owns only one sewing machine, which makes working difficult when she has many orders.

Besides cushions, she is planning to make curtains, which have been requested by many of her clients.

 

She can be found on Facebook and Instagram @New Image Cushions & Pillows.

- imenewilly@gmail.com


2022-04-29  Staff Reporter

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