Business time for ex-stripper
After retiring from stripping, Oksana Stewart couldn’t ‘‘bare’’ to see a gap in the Palmerston North market and decided there was another way she could fill it.
Stewart has transformed from a stripper to an entrepreneur through the creation of Golden Dragon Girls, where people can rent strippers and waitresses for their events.
The business launched three weeks ago and Stewart said she got the idea after she hung up her heels when she fell pregnant.
People kept asking her if she was still working or knew anyone she could recommend and Stewart realised there was a void that needed filling.
‘‘I thought: ‘How about I open my own agency and find my own girls and train them up’.’’
Her husband had been sup- portive and thought the idea was a good one and she said after being open for three weeks she was already were getting business.
Stewart has 10 women working for her, with most of them doing waitressing, including bikini, lingerie and topless waitressing.
The firm also hires women out as dealers for poker nights.
‘‘Guys assume you need a special occasion to have girls around.
‘‘They don’t realise they can just have girls come around.’’
Stewart got into the business through doing bikini waitressing and said from there she was asked how she would feel about getting into stripping.
Before that, she had never even been into a strip club.
After seeing how much money she could make, she liked the work-life balance.
‘‘I got to stay home with my kids and make money on the side and on the weekend.’’
Being a business owner was still sinking in for Stewart and long-term she would love to open a strip club in Palmerston North, but first needed more money to make that possible.
She is building up the number of women working for her and was also considering expanding into male strippers too, if any men were interested in such roles.