The celebrity sphere has immensely transformed. Those in it no longer want to be just faces of big corporates but rather owners of the companies. Shashi Naidoo is one of the local South African celebrities who are fully infiltrating the entrepreneurial landscape, building businesses from the ground up and scaling them into other segments of the entrepreneurial sphere.
“I’ve been in the industry for quite some time. I think my start in backstage was in 2004, and funny still today I still get people coming up to me and say ‘aren’t you that girl from backstage’. So I don’t think the transition, was a transition that happened overnight. It was a very slow and natural evolution, I opened the agency like I said ten years ago and it was with five models on my dining room table.” She didnt just go from being a model to owning a big modelling agency. “It happened slowly and I have evolved and I think that even though I still have a career and I model a bit and still in the industry, i do it because I enjoy the aspect of it and the fact that I get to be creative. But what I’m enjoying even more is the business side of things and growing that side.”
Naidoo is the founder and CEO of Alushi Models a venture founded in 2008 while she was still a full-time model. She is also the founder of The Laser Beautique Fairmount a chain of aesthetic clinics offering minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures, and grooming & beauty treatments for both men and women.
Being part of the industry I started noticing a few things. One, that there was this stereotype of what a model should be ‘a size zero and you should be 6 foot tall and I really did not think that’s what it takes to be a model.
“Being part of the industry I started noticing a few things. There was this stereotype of what a model should be ‘a size zero and you should be 6 foot tall and I really did not think that’s what it takes to be a model.I think if you’ve got the right personality and you are enjoying what you are doing; it should be opened to a far broader range of people. So I then decided that I’m going to start an agency where they don’t conform to those rules and that’s what we did ten years ago and it’s been an amazing experience. To feel like you’ve been part of a change within an industry has been an unbelievable thing.”
With her modelling agency Naidoo was then able to identify another business opportunity which is unfading beauty. Naidoo says being in the aesthetic industry has been something that she has been wanting to do for more than 10 years. “Laser aesthetics is definitely a thing I think a lot of ladies are seeing as a necessity and not a luxury.” Adding that this venture was her long-term goal but to start it she had to save up. Naidoo says “capital is a problem for any entrepreneur but i got my capital through saving. I don’t believe in financing, the thought of owing a bank petrified me”. Her first two businesses were not that capital intensive but she had to use her savings to kick start them.
Alushi Models Vital Stats...
Start-up : R400, 000
Establishing year: 2007
The laser beautique Vital Stats...
Start-up : R5.2 Mil
Establishing year: 2017
“I think there are so many costs in opening any business that you don’t foresee. With the industry you have to obviously look at opening a website, you have to have Zed-cards, in those days we worked with Zed cards but things have changed in the industry now ten years later.
Everything had to be printed into those Zed-cards and that was quite expensive. We had to have those portfolios, we needed to set up office with computersand printers. It is very costly in the beginning but it’s one of those things that you save up for and you do. And it also depends on how much you want to spend or you can just go for the cheap but my philosophy is to get the best and having the best service for our models and our clients.”
