Singapore
Singapore
With its stylishly modern façades and prime business locations, the Alteration Initiative chain of clothing alteration studios appears to be geared towards a well-heeled clientele particular about getting a perfect fit.
But behind this image of prestige and glamour lies a reality that is a lot more down-to-earth – Alteration Initiative is actually a social enterprise founded to help women-in-need, especially single mothers.
Set up in 2010 by Mrs Josephine Ng and her husband, Alteration Initiative equips these women with garment alteration skills which will enable them to generate their own income and improve their quality of life.
Prior to that, Mrs Ng and her husband were happily enjoying the fruits of their labour having sold their marketing agency in 2001.
But in 2009, an NUS social entrepreneurship event motivated Mrs Ng to start her own social enterprise to provide training and employment opportunities to work-capable women-in-need.
Despite the fact that the alteration and tailoring business is widely regarded as a sunset industry, Mrs Ng is confident that her business will continue to grow and benefit more women.
“Since sewing is a vanishing skill, I believe our beneficiaries will make a good living with the sewing skills we teach them,” she explained. “In the coming years, supply of quality seamstresses will decline and such services will still be in demand.”
Alteration Initiative may be a social enterprise, but it is a business nonetheless and requires a proper management team.
To fill these roles, Mrs Ng recruits students from local fashion institutions and offers internships so as to groom them for future management roles.
When asked about her future plans for the business, Mrs Ng answered, “We hope to be the largest alteration and tailoring network in Singapore so we can help more women-in-need.”
“Ultimately, we want to be a sustainable made-in-Singapore global social enterprise,” she added.
Mrs Ng is well on her way to realising her goal. Since opening its first outlet at Dhoby Xchange in January last year, Alteration Initiative has since expanded to another outlet in Mandarin Gallery and one more at Chevron House.
So what’s the secret behind Alteration Initiative’s success? Mrs Ng attributes it to a focus on people.
“The business has grown rapidly in these 15 months because of our skilled master seamstresses and friendly customer service managers.” “Even our beneficiaries are so motivated that most are already very good in basic alterations,” she said.
While Alteration Initiative has done well in a relatively short time, Josephine Ng says that social entrepreneurship is not to be underestimated.
“You have to be prepared for hardship,” she cautioned. “A social enterprise has both a business and social bottom line which makes it tougher.”
Despite the greater level of difficulty, Josephine Ng has shown that it is possible for a social enterprise to achieve success on both fronts. All she needed was a tailor-made idea, and the determination to see it through.