Working Beauty

Sixteen years ago, at the age of 11, Mrs. Gidaye Tesafaye came to
Adigrat to help her aunt take care of her baby. As part of her
duties, she not only assisted with childcare but also helped her
aunts husband in his small barber shop. The barber shop was
busy. There was little competition in Adigrat at that time.
After a year, she moved to Mekele and hunted for work. It wasnt
easy. Six months later, she got a job in a barber shop and earned
200 birr per month. She decided she could do better. After
working there for three years, she and her cousin opened their
own barber shop. The partnership was rocky, and they parted
ways after a year. This only increased my determination to work
independently, says Gidaye. She decided to open a spa business
with a beauty salon, massage, and sauna both steam and
morocco bath. But she didnt have the skills, so she moved to
Figure 1:- Mrs Gidaye (Owner of GD Spa)

Addis Ababa and trained for six months.

She opened her business as GD Spa in 1998 E.C. (2006 GC). She
worked very hard and promoted her business Beauty Salon for
Women and Men with Sauna and Steam service for Men only.
Opening this was not easy, especially due to a lack of financing. So
she got a loan 0f 200,000 ETB from DECSI.
She needed more.
Her customers number increased. Demand was high. She realized Figure 2:- Gidaye at her Reception and Cosmetic shop
she could expand her business, but she didnt have the money to
grow it the way she wanted. At that crucial time, she heard about the WEDP loan program. She created a
business plan and got a WEDP loan of 500,000 ETB from DECSI on Aug, 2014. This enabled her to expand
her services. Sauna, steam, Morroco bath and massage service were given to men and women, and she

opened a beauty training center. When hiring an employee, she always had to train them herself. The new
training center enables her to train employees and ensure they provide consistent, high-quality service.
Today, her business is more than 10-years-old. Each year, her customer numbers are increasing and so is her
profit. Currently, she has at least 1,000 regular customers. Since she borrowed the WEDP loan, she hired five
new employees and her profit has increased by 40%. Before the loan, her profit was ETB 22,000 per month.
After the loan her profit is 30,000 ETB.
Feedback from her customers about the changes has been positive. Recently, she received the Model
Entrepreneur Award from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise office of Tigray Regional states.

Figure 3:- The Barber Shop at GD Spa

Currently she has 32 employees. Also she has trained around 80 students, and of these, 35 trainees have
opened their own barber shop/beauty salon. Others were hired in big hotels like Planet Hotel.
But challenges remain. She has two permanent suppliers who lives in
Addis Ababa and provide her the high quality materials needed for
her business. But the costs of the materials are constantly increasing.
The other challenge she faces is rent. Her premises rental costs have
increased 100%. Finally, her employee turnover was high, but now
she will hire students from her training center.
Now a mother of two, Gidaye is a strong and energetic young
woman with dreams of further business expansion. She plans to take Figure 4:-GD Morocco Bath
out a second WEDP loan and wants to expand her business by
including a gymnasium service and to expand her training center.