Daughter of Guyana’s renown fashion designer and humanitarian Sonia Noel is thriving in the business industry. Following in the footsteps of her mother is young, talented Shonta Cheyanne Noel. The single twenty-three year old who was born in Georgetown and grew up in both Bartica and Barbados is the founder of “Crafted by Chey”. The business which initially started with handmade personalized greeting cards has now expanded its product line to party supplies such as cake boxes, party bags, cake toppers, centerpieces, invitations, banners and accessories such as African inspired necklaces, chokers, bracelets and earrings. These items are custom made to the recipient’s personality especially those who pay attention to detail which is unusual in a regular store.
As believed by the entrepreneur who has very few hobbies, baking connects the most with her crafting due to recipes that were explored. One such is decorated sugar cookies which definitely required some crafting skill and patience. A connection is therefore established between the entrepreneur and a love for creating; and I quote “I truly believe I was born to create, it’s a gene I’m grateful to have been blessed with”. Her ability to transform something into something else is one of the things she adores. Not only does it relate to her business related items but with teaching, as this is an art she loves to explore. She believes that education is one of the greatest gifts you can give someone.
The budding entrepreneur believes that St. Rose’s High School allowed her to set dreams for herself (which she is proud of accomplishing some already) and it has fueled her into being the persistent person she is. Shonta’s distinguished achievements during the course of her High School life including being the Head Prefect of the school and the Valedictorian which were two of her early goals in life. She even surpassed those and was named Caribbean Examinations Council’s most Outstanding Candidate in Caribbean Advance Proficiency Examination Business Studies(2015) programme. Moreover, she could not have accomplished her goals without her main support team that had an impact in her high School life besides her mom, which she introduced as her teachers, sister and close friends. Her comments are as follows:
Teachers (Samantha Success, Kester Thompson, Eugene Thompson & Estherine Adams)- They believed in me when I found it extremely difficult to believe in myself. They made sure I had all the resources available even if it didn’t concern their subject(s). If anyone is ever looking for the definition of a teacher, they can look to them.
Friends (Cicelia, Matthew, Taneisha, James, John & Christophe)- We were all going through the same thing so we knew each other’s challenges. It was never a competition among us, we all wanted to do great so we helped each other however we could.
Marisca (sister)- She’s still one of my main cheerleaders. She literally believes I can do anything and whenever I complained about something, she’d always reassure me with “you got this sissy!”.
Getting into business
Being in the final year of High School, Ms. Noel was in the thought process of having a graduation reception and wanted to create invitations for it. The plans weren’t concrete but during one of her stationery shopping trips, she decided to purchase some supplies to create samples. In the same instance, one of her colleagues was about to celebrate their birthday so, she created a birthday card for her and kept on making cards which were eventually posted online. The response was great and her mom, Sonia Noel, informed her that she can develop a business from her skills. The cards out-shined the invitations as the reception thought was never fulfilled. However, this Guyanese entrepreneur wasn’t surprised by her talent since she’s been creating for as long as she could remember and was not hesitant about doing it as a business.
Her first step into business wasn’t as serious as she is now. This was as a result of starting whilst being a student so time management was one of her issues. Her motive then was to get extra money even though there were no substantial expenses at the time. However, her first step was choosing a name and then letting people know about it. At first she limited herself with regards to marketing because she wanted to wait until the pressure of her studies was over. She then went on to ensuring proper tools to make the items were available to her. Moreover, “Crafted by Chey” wasn’t the initial name of the business. It started out as “Khaleesi’s” which originated from Game of Thrones meaning “queen” in the show and a queen rules as Shonta wanted her business to eventually be a front runner. Later on, it was rebranded in January 2017 for the sake of having a more personal meaning and relation to what the business is about. According to the entrepreneur, she woke up one day and “Crafted by Chey” (Cheyanne her middle name) was the first thing that came to her mind and it just felt right.
As with anything one would like to see flourish, it needs to be watered and given proper nutrients and attention. This is a concept used by Ms. Noel with regards to her business. She views it as a child and any decision made is towards seeing the growth of that child into the best it can be. Even though, the craft industry is becoming popular with the growth in the number of craft business, the entrepreneur believes it is undervalued by some persons. This is as a result of them viewing the products as such items on a shelf without considering the thought process, time and materials used to create an item if uniqueness.
The struggles
One of the entrepreneur’s struggle included time management as she was still in school at the time. It is still a struggle for her at times since she is now a student of the University but, her courses are more flexible. As such, a limit is placed on the number of orders if she knows that school will have her occupied, so as to not exhaust herself too much. To overcome most of her struggles, she tries to find the best outcome by recalling similar situations or simply seeking advice from someone capable. Ms. Noel’s motivational strategy is to keep telling herself she has come too far or worked too hard to quit now and people go through more and still survived.
Her Success
With regards to the achievement of dreams, the entrepreneur links herself to the song titled “I’m far from finished” by Voice. She is proud of herself thus far but, know that there’s to dead end to her road. Moreover, persons are becoming more sensitized towards customized products so the market is growing which was identified by the increase in the number and diversity of orders over the years as Ms. Noel indicated.
Ms. Noel is indeed dedicated to her business and works with confidence as she works with a schedule and maintains management of her business well. In achieving her success, her mom was the one who first planted the idea and she continues to give her views on ideas and offers financial support even if it’s not asked for. Ms. Shonta contributes to society through volunteerism with the Come Alive Network Inc and was also a featured businesswoman at the Women-in-Business Expo hosted by Sonia Noel. One key feature about “Crafted by Chey” is that it brings the ideas of customers close to reality as possible which is a legacy that may just live on.
Shonta, a believer in God lives with the philosophy “Once, it doesn’t have harmful consequences, do it. The outcome might surprise you.” as indicated in an interview. Moreover, her encouragement to other young women like herself is that opportunities aren’t always going to open up for you so sometimes you have to create them yourself. Further, when asked for a message to readers, this is what Ms. Shonta Noel had to say, and I quote “The fact that you’re reading this probably means that you have a dream that you’re hesitant about. Did I know I was going to be doing this? No. Was this my exact dream? No, but it happened, I am good at it and I love it. If you’re good at something, test it out and see how far it takes you.”
