Medical Student explores artistic talent with art business

Apr 02, 2023 News

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By Malisa Playter Harry

Kaieteur News – With the ever-growing business community, every day we hear of or see new and interesting business ventures being taken up by Guyanese. These businesses continuously evolve and often expand into various aspects.

Today, we focus our attention to a 27-year-old medical student who decided to pursue his talent and passion for art. Shazam Somwar, a Berbician by birth, who lives on the East Coast of Demerara, launched his business “Crafty Guy Gy” just over a year ago, and has never looked back.

 

With such a catchy name and his catchy logo, the business, and the service it offers have become quite popular in the brief period it has been in operation. According to Somwar, “Crafty Guy Gy” is everything art and craft, mainly specializing in acrylic painting on canvas, photo frames, plexiglass, embroidery art on canvas, pyrographing or wood burning art, photo transfers to wood, popsicle stick art and handmade décor.

“Everything can be customized to your liking or you can choose from what we have available on our shelf at Collage for purchase.” Somwar revealed.

The medical student who is working to become a medical practitioner in the near future, stated that his business was officially birthed on January 14, 2022, with the idea taking shape during the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that during that time when persons hardly left their homes, he began dabbling with paint on canvas, and it subsequently developed into an enjoyable hobby of his.

“At the time I was unaware if my art was as good as to sell,however, I never pursued it until someone actually purchased a painting. I never had intention of selling it, but it was purchased and so I continued painting.”

In January 2022, Somwar said he received epoxy resin as a gift and it was one of those gifts that had him pretty excited, since it was always a desire of his to try out epoxy by creating epoxy products.

“As soon as I got the gift I immediately started to mix and make a resin keyring and there was this thought to start a small business. I started asking around because this was new to me, starting up a business. I started a page, got my logo which I made myself, published and started posting and the rest is history.”

From the time the business was conceptualized to now, Somwar said he puts in almost 20 hours a week to his business, while also juggling studies and his NGO’s.

In his opinion, his business has certainly grown from the time it started and it has moved from being a solely online business to having a physical location in a collage space. This move he said, has allowed him to garner even more customers than he expected, and has helped to grow the business tremendously.

“The idea is to keep the fire going with creating new and interesting products and also creating a relationship with clients that ensures satisfaction. With our growth we were able to host two giveaways and hoping to do another soon.”

Somwar disclosed that part of the sales proceeds achieved from March 11^th 2023 to April 11th 2023, will be given to two organisations that are in need.

The young medical student and entrepreneur expressed that besides always wanting to become a medical doctor, he had a desire to enter the world of business, and with “Crafty Guy Gy”, it has created that path for him.

He expressed that some of the positives he has taken away from this new venture is that there is always an opportunity to meet new people and fellow business owners who are always ready and willing to share their knowledge and tips with him.

He also said that, “being an entrepreneur in the world of business has helped me mature and has opened so much more for me to learn in the big wide world….”

But the road hasn’t always been smooth for Somwar, he mentioned that there were some challenges he experienced and for him, capital acquisition was one of those. He noted that “not every business start-up comes on good capital, but if it is something you really passionate about and want, you’d take that challenge and you’d get through it.”

Another issue was the sourcing of materials.With his business being heavily reliant of art and craft materials, it could not always be acquired at an affordable cost, noting that the art and craft industry in Guyana is not as vast as one expects it to be.

“…so, when it’s time for restock of materials you may not be able to find them in Guyana and when you have to source it elsewhere, that brings additional costs to you and also it becomes a challenge when your products are priced “too expensive”because a lot of persons do not support.”

He has however, gained major support from his family and close circle of friends who have helped in many ways, whether it was finance, helping with products, showing up at his pop-up events, helping to market and simply sharing his posts online, the support he said has been tremendous.

Somwar revealed that his ultimate goal as an entrepreneur is to be one that provides quality, affordability and one that understands the needs of consumers. In 5-10 years, he hopes to become a successful medical doctor and help to pave the way in eradicating the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. In the world of business, he intends to one day open an art gallery where artists/crafters can have a space to display their art pieces, sell them and host art and craft shows.

If you are looking to check or purchase some of Somwar’s amazing pieces you can contact him on Whatsapp619-2965 or you can find his business page on Facebook, Tik Tok and Instagram as “Crafty Guy Gy.”

 

 

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