Greek Entrepreneurs Who Beat The Economic Crisis
- by XpatAthens
- Thursday, 19 February 2015
The success stories of Greek entrepreneurs who defied the economic crisis and prospered is the subject of a recent feature article in The Washington Times. Penny Vomva is a fashion designer who took the risk to open a store and sell her creations in prestigious Voukourestiou street in downtown Athens.
Now RIEN, her storefront, sits next to Dior and Prada. Her handmade leather handbags sell for 180 to 450 euros, rather steep for the crisis-stricken Greek market, but Vomva says business is good and it would have been better if it wasn’t for the crisis.
The 35-year-old designer started in 2008, at the beginning of the Eurozone crisis. She began showcasing her clothes in a hotel suite and now has two stores, one in Athens and the other in the cosmopolitan island of Mykonos. Like many other new Greek business owners, she is focusing on exports. Switzerland and Saudi Arabia are her key targets, selling through an online shopping site and keeping costs low. Vomva has two employees, so she does most of the work herself. Sales are up, however, so she is optimistic.
“It is really difficult to work in this crisis,” she said. “If I hadn’t studied business administration before getting in the fashion industry, I wouldn’t have made it.”
To read more, please visit greekreporter.com
By Philip Chrysopoulos