Akela’s story: how a day out led to a thriving business

Akela Henry is the owner of The Beauty Clinic in Georgetown, Guyana. Her business creates beautiful and unique nail designs. She used our HerVenture app’s new learning track on mobile money to learn about the emerging digital payment method and how to implement it in her business. 

“Something I love about being a nail technician is that when the customer’s nails are done, they are happy with my service. They are happy to come back because I did well. I try to perfect with everything that I do. 

The idea for my business came to me when my friends and I had gone for a day out. We went to this nail tech who was doing nails and drawing designs. I could totally draw, so I thought “why don’t I start doing this?” I went home, I bought some supplies, and started practicing.  

Starting the business was very hard. I thought it would have been easier.  

I first saw the HerVenture app advertised on Facebook. I needed to know certain things in order to get my business going, so I decided to download it and start reading up on the modules. 

HerVenture has been very beneficial to me, particularly the module on mobile money as my clients can now make deposits without having to come to the salon. Before, I was mainly taking cash payments, which I collected from customers at their appointments. This led to some issues with the booking process. People were booking, cancelling, and then rebooking again when their plans changed. Since I wasn’t charging a deposit for online bookings, it was easy for customers to be back and forth like this, which meant I would lose out on business. That all changed when I started using mobile money for deposits. 

I implemented mobile money and a new requirement for digital deposits during the booking process in order to secure appointments. This made things a lot simpler for me. I use mobile money for most of my customers now. 

Some of the HerVenture mobile money track’s lessons were easy, but some I didn’t really understand at first, so I learned as I continued to use the app. I also learned how to budget, how to spend, what not to do and what to take into consideration. 

Since I since I started using mobile money, I’ve gained more clients and learned how to be more customer-oriented. 

I think mobile money is very beneficial for clients, because they might be at work or in another area where they aren’t able to come in and make a deposit in advance. It’s also beneficial for me, because when I’m busy with clients I can use the app to pay my bills on the go. 

I’m very happy with how my business has been progressing. It was a little hard at first, but applying these things that I learned from HerVenture really made me excel.”