Blog
International Gratitude Day
Yesterday was International Gratitude Day. As a Sandal Artisan and since launching Ankalia the things I’m grateful for have probably changed a lot, compared to what they may have been in previous years. First of all, I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity given to me by ‘Papa” and his sons in Italy. If it wasn’t for them, I would never have become a Sandal Artisan. Secondly, I’m grateful for the people that have helped me along the way with Ankalia. Probably number one here is my web developer Rox at Ascend7. Rox goes above and beyond with everything he does...
Sandals by Cheryl Botha of Ankalia
Here I am introducing myself (again) and my sandal label – Ankalia, which launched 6 years ago. Ankalia is a female created, owned and managed sandal business that handcrafts luxury, limited edition Swarovski crystal leather sandals. We’re an online business based in Australia and all our sandals are designed and handcrafted by me. One of the reasons I started Ankalia is that I wanted to give women easy access to high-quality, limited-edition Swarovski crystal sandals, outside of Italy. Comfort is so important when it comes to shoes and so many women want an alternative to super high heels. That’s where...
Sisterhood Start-Up Success
Sisters do it for themselves in start-ups Recently we celebrated the United Nation’s Small and Medium Enterprise Day. Not surprisingly the evolution of “womenpreneurs” was identified as one of the Top 10 trends of the year. In Australia, female entrepreneurship is also an emerging trend with women-owned, women led enterprises increasing at a faster rate than male-owned businesses, according to small business and family enterprise ombudsman Bruce Billson. In Australia, approximately 38 percent of small businesses are owned by women and I’m sure this percentage will keep growing. In 2019, of the 171,000 new businesses set-up in Australia, two-thirds were...
Samantha Wills of Gold & Dust
They say the average CEO reads 60 books a year, or 5 books per month. Reading to me is certainly a way to keep learning and to learn from others. I find that reading about the journey of other successful business and career women helps me on my journey with Ankalia. It’s always great to read about the successes, challenges, ideas, wins and losses that other women have experienced along their journey of life, career, business, romance and family. My latest read was Of Gold & Dust – A Memoir of a Creative Life by Samantha Wills. Samantha’s an Aussie...
Fast Fashion Faux Pas
Slow fashion versus fast fashion. The biggest fashion faux pas of the last few years is people’s tendency to buy “fast fashion” which is bad for the environment in so many ways. My Ankalia customers certainly understand and appreciate “slow fashion.” I want all consumers to place value on the clothing and footwear they buy and avoid “fast fashion” as much as possible. They should invest in quality pieces and ensure they only buy things they will wear and treasure for many, many years to come. I urge all shoppers to only buy things they feel instantly great in and...
- womenpreneur