– Leaving steady employment behind, they build ventures in beauty, fashion and cosmetology
BEING fuelled by passion is one step, but having the courage to leave a steady job and venture into a business is a leap. This is what three friends did just around a year ago. While working full-time jobs, the trio, all with their own unique passions, took the bold leap into business, leaving their jobs to launch their own ventures. What began as three friends encouraging each other has since transformed into three distinct journeys of purpose, resilience and self-belief for Yolanda Gilkes, Ianka Snagg and Diasha Daly. For Yolanda, it was a growing dissatisfaction with the routine of her job and an unshakable pull towards her passion for makeup that pushed her to take the leap. Ianka, on the other hand, was driven by a desire to continue her late mother’s legacy in fashion by building her own boutique. Meanwhile, Diasha followed a long-standing love for hair, nurtured from her school days and strengthened through training and encouragement, into a business she now calls her own. Together, their successful ventures reflect the courage it takes to step away from stability and invest in something personal, uncertain, but ultimately rewarding.
Yolanda Gilkes is the woman behind Doll Face Make Up Studio, a business she developed after working a regular nine-to-five for five years. While the challenges she faced at work would force some to find new jobs, Gilkes decided she would build something of her own. Her passion for make-up was sparked years earlier when her mother sent her to cosmetology school, and since then, she has known she has a passion for the craft. “Makeup was something I became passionate about when I finished school because my mother sent me to a makeup class during the summer, and from then I always wanted to do it,” she said. Gilkes found time in between her shifts to practise on her friends and colleagues, eventually perfecting her skills.
But doing make-up part-time was only the beginning, and soon the drive to pursue a business of her own pushed Gilkes to take the major step. As she told the Pepperpot Magazine, her passion for the craft, coupled with the drive to make a job out of it, made her, as she explains it, ‘put 100 per cent’ into the business. “It was something that kept knocking in my head that I needed to start my own business. It’s like a calling. When you’re called to do something, you think about it every day, and you can’t get it off your mind.” The support and encouragement of her family and friends were also vital, as she added, “I would say I opened to the public because of encouragement from friends and family. They kept saying, ‘You need to start, you’re doing good,’ and I just started.”
Following in her mother’s footsteps, Gilkes set up a space that housed her vision as she launched Doll Face Make Up Studio. She added that support from her mother was also vital to the business’s creation. However, the challenges did not stop at setting up the business; Gilkes shared that social media and marketing were also major aspects of the business she had to learn and grapple with. As she shared, “I would say the most challenging part was social media, finding people and getting them to trust you to do their face, because some people have been using certain service providers for years.” She added, “It’s hard to get customers, and promoting is a challenge because I want to reach a larger number of people, but I feel like I’m still stuck in a range.” As the business grew, Gilkes said sourcing was among the hurdles she had to overcome to maintain success.
For Ianka Snagg, the woman behind clothing boutique Style Rack Boutique, the business was a way of honouring her late mother by continuing her legacy. After leaving her three-year-long position, Snagg ventured into business for the first time in her life following the passing of her mother after the pandemic. Speaking to the Pepperpot Magazine on how this motivated her to venture into entrepreneurship, she shared, “My mother was passionate about clothing and had her own boutique in the interior. After COVID, she passed away, and I wanted to keep the business going because I love to dress and she loved to dress as well.” She added that this was not only the creation of a business but also the continuation of a legacy, saying, “My mother and I were always shopping in boutiques in Georgetown and online, and I decided this was my thing and I wanted to follow in her footsteps.”
Snagg also shared the importance of community in starting her business. As she recounted, encouragement from friends and family pushed her to begin taking orders and establish the business. Snagg shared that her dream was to create a business by the time she was 25, and just a few months ago, that dream became a reality through consistency. As she shared, “Before I opened the boutique, when I put outfits together, people would tell me I should sell them, and my friends would order from me. I started doing pre-orders first and set up my business while I was still working.” She added that the business moved a few times before she settled into a space of her own, adding, “I rented a space in Mocha, and it was doing well, then I moved the business to town, and now I have my own space.”
Snagg worked through her own challenges in establishing her business. For her, the prevalence of numerous other boutiques made her doubt whether her business would be successful. Highlighting a fear that most small business owners have, Snagg opened her boutique despite that doubt, and today is happy with her choice, sharing, “There are a lot of boutiques around, especially in town, and many of them already have a large customer base. I used to wonder if I would make it or if I should even start. Sometimes business is slow, like in March when there aren’t many events, but overall it has been going well,” she said.
For young hairstylist Diasha Daly, cosmetology and hair have been areas she has been passionate about since high school. Daly worked at her job for just a few months before taking the step to start cosmetology school for seven months, a move that she said ignited her motivation to start Novie’s Unique Hair Space. As she told the Pepperpot Magazine, “Since secondary school, I always loved doing hair and paying attention to how my hair looked. I got into a cosmetology programme with the Ministry of Labour and later attended the cosmetology school. I have always been passionate about hair, so I just continued doing it,” she shared. Daly worked in a salon, where her talents soon made her stand out from her counterparts, as she added, “I started working at a salon after someone reached out to me when they saw my work. I wasn’t taking clients at first, but I was encouraged to start again. My friends and colleagues kept pushing me, and when the salon owner was leaving the country, I branched off on my own.”
As the business grew, however, Daly found that building a strong online presence was a hurdle. As she shared, she struggled to get new clients in the early stages, but over time, she has succeeded in developing a support base of her own. “I had challenges with social media, but I am improving. Clients already have their regular hairdressers, so sometimes I am their backup, but I am still building my client base. I also had challenges finding the right products because different clients require different things.” She credited her support system as a major part of this success, noting that, “My biggest support system has been my friends and my former employer. They kept pushing me to keep going and improve.”
For three women who each took a leap of faith on their own terms, the advice they offer is as grounded as the journeys that shaped them. All three point to faith, self-belief and a strong support system as the cornerstones of their successful ventures. Daly encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to lead with the heart and trust the process, while Snagg urges decisiveness and resilience, reminding those who doubt themselves that setbacks are simply part of the path. Gilkes, who has since expanded her offerings to include lip gloss and has her sights set on launching her own lash product line, offers perhaps the most practical piece of wisdom: “When things are not doing well, do not just sit there.” All three businesses are open and growing, and together their stories are proof that with enough faith, consistency and courage, everything will, as Snagg puts it, fall into place.
