Meet Ornella Luces-Cedenio | Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ornella Luces-Cedenio and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ornella, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
The thought process behind starting my own business was an elaborate one. I say elaborate because there were many contributing factors that allowed me to arrive at the decision of opening my own business. Firstly I have an obsession with shopping. It’s my greatest stress reliever. So sometimes I would travel and purchase excessive clothing that I did not need or would not use. As a result of this I began selling my excess clothes to close friends and family. Pretty soon, they started asking me to shop for them. Also the joy I got from seeing them in clothing I chose was unexplainable. Then it hit me: since I enjoy doing this so much why not capitalize and make it a business. It would never feel like work because its something I enjoy doing. After that was decided, I started working on a name. I wanted something catchy that would easily roll off the tongue, hence Bella By Nella was created. It was perfect because “Bella” means beautiful in Spanish and all the women I sold to were beautiful and it rhymed with my name. After the name was established, I purchased my first stock and the rest was history.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I operate a fashion business where we sell clothing, fashion. accessories and beauty products. I started by selling female clothing only and after the success of that business I decided to expand and include male clothing and beauty products in my catalogue. These businesses are Bella By Nella, Fella By Nella and Nella Love Beauty, respectively.

What sets my businesses apart from the others is that I provide quality items for the cheapest possible price. I don’t ever try to exploit my customers by selling an overpriced product. With me, you get your money’s worth. I am also big on trends. I love to keep up with what is in and provide my customers with options. Another important factor is branding. All our clothing is our brand with our tags in it. When you see an item, you’re gonna know its from us.

I am most proud of the progress and success of my business. During 2021, my business has seen significant growth which allowed us to increase the amount and quantity of items we order. It afforded us the opportunity to hire more staff, to get a warehouse and store front as we were previously operating out of my living room and to hire different couriers to deliver our products country wide (Trinidad & Tobago). It also allowed us to expand into male clothing and beauty products.

The journey to where I am right now was tedious however I am not complaining. It took a-lot of trial and error and we still have not perfected it yet because we are not yet where we would like to be. We have had a-lot of hurdles, some of which we still experience. These include but are not limited to importing our product in our country. My business started out very small out of my home. But with success and demand for more product we were challenged to expand and we took on that challenge quite gracefully and quickly. After the decision was made to expand, things began falling into place quickly. My close friend recently opened a spa and told me she had extra rooms on her compound and that is how our warehouse and store front came about in September 2021. We did a major make over to the place and began operating there. We live in a world that is technology driven and my husband encouraged me to build a website to make ordering and shipping easier. I launched my website on November 29th, 2021 and encouraged our customers to place all orders there instead of our IG dms. That helped greatly as we lost plenty orders through IG dms. Since then our website has been fully functional and we ship our orders out or facilitate in store pick ups and walk ins. In business there are always challenges, many of them but how you deal with them to overcome and improve is the real challenge.

My business taught me many valuable lessons. The first one is patience. Over the years I have learn how to deal with all different types of customers. I have also learned conflict/problem solution. In my eyes, the customer is always right so we work around each issue to resolve it in a way beneficial to the customer and also amicable because we want them to return and also recommend us to others.

I want the world to know my brand is here to stay. I also would like to be used as an example for budding business owners because my brand was built from ground up. It was not given to me.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My country is lit. There is always something to do. Depending on. the time of year, we have seasonal parties so we would definitely go to one of those. I would definitely have to take them bar hopping on Ariapita avenue. We would have a dinner date at Amara or Towne restaurant. We would definitely have to eat doubles for breakfast and lastly we must visit Maracas beach and have Richard’s Bake & Shark.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Yes, I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my deceased mother and my supportive husband. My mother played a vital role in my development and molded me into the person I am today. After my mother’s passing, my husband picked up the baton and provided undying support and infinite motivation, emphasizing how important it was for me to believe in myself without limitations and continue to function out of my comfort zone to achieve all the great things in life.

Website: nellaloveltd.com

Instagram: nellaloveltd, bellabynella, fellabynella, nellalovebeauty

Linkedin: Ornella Luces

Twitter: nellaloveltd, bellabynella, fellabynella

Facebook: Nella Love, Bella By Nella

Other: Tiktok: nellaloveltd, bellabynella