The personal touch for that special piece to lift your sp

BOLD, bright and bubbly, Durban North businesswoman Lauren Ginn has built a bustling boutique costume jewellery business.

Lauren Ginn Fashion Accessories, on the premises of Suburban Café in Durban North, supplies some of the city’s top designers, including Carol Clark and Bianca Warren, as well as retailers from the Drakensberg and Pietermaritzburg to Durban and Ballito.

Ginn, 39, worked for years as a professional in the recruitment business in London and had a stint teaching English in Taiwan before returning to South Africa in 2010 after her first son was born.

She now has two boys, aged 4 and 6, and decided to seek out a stimulating, flexible business opportunity.

Initially she taught English to Japanese women whose husbands were working in the country.

“But I thought this was not enough and I was thinking of either buying a business or starting something,” she said.

Ginn decided to start a nail salon, went for a course and opened a small home-based business. She loved the client interaction, but battled to do nails. “I was useless.”

While looking for other opportunities, she met a Chinese importer. “I went to his warehouse in Durban. He couldn’t speak English, but I was used to that, having lived in Taiwan,” she said.

“In a corner of his warehouse I spotted a few necklaces and was drawn to them. They were pearly and vintage looking.”

She bought 10, sold two to a relative and displayed the rest in her salon.

“They were gone in two days. I went back to the warehouse and that’s how it all started. Then I broadened my range. I bought bracelets and earrings and everything I could get from him.”

Ginn sold her jewellery at church markets and charity events and, despite a reluctance to buy on the internet, opened an online store and advertised her goods on social media sites Facebook and Instagram.

Retailers with stores in Gateway and La Lucia Mall soon approached her and invited her to supply their stores.

“That was when my business took off,” said Ginn.

Now she sponsors Mrs SA finalist Teneille White and East Coast Radio DJ Jane LinleyThomas with jewellery, and supplies former Miss SA Megan Coleman’s business in Kloof, as well as top fashion designers, the Champagne Sports Resort store in the Drakensberg and retailers in Pietermaritzburg, Ballito, Gateway and the La Lucia Mall.

As her business grew, Ginn did research to establish the best places to visit abroad to find more suppliers. She went to China, visited a small commodity market there and made contact with potential suppliers.

She opened her first store in Durban North in July and, despite a tough economy, it has thrived and now sells hundreds of pieces a month. Ginn has two permanent staff and a casual worker.

“I felt confident that, recession or not, my prices were good because 95 percent of my necklaces are R120. People come in all the time for gifts and I’ve just launched gift vouchers,” she said.

Cost-effective costume jewellery has always been important to her.

“In London, going out on a Saturday night, I would get new jeans, a top, handbag and a new necklace – just a night out for a 21st birthday. I wanted to bring the same affordability here,” she said.

Ginn is excited about the shop because she loves interacting and helping people select pieces to suit their style.

“I want people to have the variety I’ve had in life because I know what it has done for me in terms of putting jewellery on and how good it makes me feel to be wearing the right colour, for my skin to be illuminated, and to feel good about myself.”

Ginn has a kiddies range, Little Missy, and recently added handbags and clothing, but says jewellery will remain her focus as she aims to open a second shop in a local mall before expanding to Cape Town and Joburg.

“It will take a long time. I’m still building my brand. In many ways it has been a quick turnaround in five years; in other ways it has been gradual and slow,” she said.

“In the retail game you have to be 20 steps ahead. I’m always thinking of the next idea. I always think: could anybody mould my entire business? They couldn’t because the most important part is the buying, which I do, and I could never give that away because it’s my personal creativity,” she said.