We had a wonderful time with Sheila from Prime Shades. She is a beautiful soul, very passionate about her work and an inspirational being. You only need to read the text of our interview to be inspired. Here’s our chat broken into multiple pages.
Tell us about yourself and your business?
I’m Sheila Enuson and the CEO of Prime Shades Ltd. We do interior designing and events i.e. weddings, parties, etc. We also do construction. We’re based in Ghana and have been in operation since 2008. By God’s grace, we are humbled to say that we are among the top names in Ghana when it comes to decor. We are very reliable in what we do and we offer our clients the best of services. The main thing we do when it comes to events are weddings and we take particular interest in weddings because we want weddings to be beautiful for every couple. We don’t believe in discrimination. We work with everyone and make sure every bride feels special and happy. We’ve been building our profile since we started and over the years we have worked with over 50 couples. We limit the amount of couples/workload to make sure we put in our best for the couples we work with. Our monthly target is a maximum of two weddings to allow us time to achieve beautiful, well-packaged weddings especially considering that some weddings are destination weddings and those take a lot of time. We also take our time to focus on the bride, the groom and the families involved because you can’t say you’re having a wedding and ignore the bride’s mum. NEVER!! If the bride’s mum is available, she’s your first contact. The bride knowing that the mum is in agreement with most of the things, and the mother-in-law or father-in-law are also in agreement brings a lot of peace of mind and understanding on the day.
We give our best to every wedding – making sure everyone comes with their head up high and goes home with their head down (where they are happy and knocked out from having a good time at a great party) but we make sure that there is proper coordination – with an MC to cheer the event, with good food and drinks, great ambiance for a good event. It is important to us that we don’t just complete our aspect of the decor but we ensure the totality of the wedding; being in sync and making sure it is a memorable event. That’s what we always aim to achieve and we try our best for every client, irrespective of their budget. We make sure we cater to everyone. We have the high-end clients and the budget-friendly clients and we make sure that in all our endeavours, we give every bride that special attention.
How did you start and what inspired you to get into this industry?
Wow! how I started. I started at home and church. I always loved to setup the tables for dinner, lunch and I loved to see all the dressings ironed, paid so much attention to what we call ‘the home decor’. The regular home where your mum does the cooking and you want to make the food and garnish it before presenting it. That was something within me that I didn’t realize I had until after school. It was after I had completed my tertiary education that I said to myself “do I really want to be a journalist?”. I worked at a radio station for about a year and felt that I was missing something. I missed when I arranged flowers in church. I was in the girls fellowship. I am a Methodist and so at the girls fellowship, we learnt a number of things from crocheting and home detailing. You’re taught a whole lot and I grew fond of always playing with the fabrics and the floral. I didn’t know I had a talent in me until, I think in 2005, when my attention was drawn to what my potential was. We had events at church where sometimes we needed to put the tables together and sometimes we waited on the decorator in vain so we improvised and put the decor together. People were happy with our decor. My cousins subsequently sought me out saying “we have an event coming up, since you’re the planner, how do we do it” and I would provide a list of items and tasks to be completed. We worked with plastic chairs. It was a lot of fun for me. I wasn’t getting paid for jobs but I was always happy doing them. It was out of this passion that I grew interested in developing my talent.
I believe I am where I am today, with the help of my friends and family, because without them no one would have known me. They gave me all the encouragement. My mum would give remarks like “this is beautiful, keep doing it” and also my sister, may her soul rest in peace. She is one of the special people in my life. I still keep her memories. I remember her telling me 10 years ago, that the work I’m doing now will take me to a lot of places. At the time, I didn’t understand her but I wish now that she was still alive for me to tell her that “sis, see what I’ve been able to do with events”. Every time I see videos of my work, I cry because I wish she could see what I’ve been able to do with the little things I used to play with at home. Every time they found a broken vase, they knew I broke the vase. I grew up loving what I do. I still love what I do and I’m still passionate about it.
I think I’ve grown interest in having a taste of Nigeria; a twist of Nigerian and Ghanaian flavor in my work. I want to to be a little unique and stand out from the usual Ghanaian style. I like glitz and glam and I see that Nigerians do and that’s why I’m drawn to visiting Nigeria often. When I come, I look for vendors, accessories, all the necessities I think my bride requires – from her outfit to her shoes. In Nigeria, you have a wide variety and that’s why I’m here.
