“From a simple play with my child.” A 37-year-old Sibiu woman opened her business with an initial investment of 500 lei

Ioana Ianculovici is 37 years old, from Sibiu and works in the commercial field. During the pandemic, the young woman discovered, by chance, playing with her son, her passion for handmade. Since then, in addition to her main job, Ioana also makes arrangements and accessories for weddings and anniversaries. They make them from soap flowers, dried or cryogenic flowers, but also natural flowers, on request.

“I can say that this whole thing with creation started from him, it was the period of the pandemic when everyone was at home and through other games I was trying to make with him, we started playing with flowers. In fact and right, I wanted to open my own business a long time ago”, said Ioana for Turnul Sfatului.

Playing with materials and decorations, Ioana realized that she is passionate about this field and that the results that come out of her hands deserve to be shared further.

“I started timidly with small arrangements, which, to my surprise, caught on with the public. I posted separately on the facebook page I created and started joining profile groups. Then I started making accessories for weddings, bouquets, candles, bracelets, I joined a lot of groups for brides. Everything was from a simple play with my child from which I realized that I like it, I lose myself in work, I lose myself in what I have to do and I like that it gives me peace”, she said.

What products does Ioana make?

Among Ioana’s product portfolio are floral arrangements made of soap flowers, cryogenic flowers, dried flowers, but also natural flowers, upon request.

“I started from home, after which I physically opened a flower shop on the same line of soap, cryogenic, dried, silk flowers, I wanted it to be a combination, but it’s hard to be small. I closed the physical store and worked from home, I have a room where I stored everything I need and I work from there,” she said.

Investment and future plans

Ioana tells that the initial investment was very small, but that later there were other costs generated by the opening of the company and the purchase of materials for decorations.

“Since it was all for fun, the costs were minimal, about 500 lei. There were little costs in the beginning, and then I kept investing, I saw that it works, that there is a demand and that people like what I do. Then came the costs of opening the company, materials, basically it is a constant investment. I never gave up on the idea of ​​opening something physical. Of course because first of all I like the work with trade, working with people, I love trade, I love communication”, she concluded.

You can find Ioana and her creations on the Facebook page Raluca_store_handmadebyme and on the Instagram page of the same name.

Subscribe to the Turnul Sfatului WhatsApp channel to find out in real time the relevant news from Sibiu: access the link here and press the Follow option.