Start small, aim high: Gamaly

Young businessman Gamaly

A 23-year-old young businessman from Asaranmannu Village on North Pentecost has learned to start business small but aim high and looks beyond boundaries.

George Gamaly owns and runs an auto-mechanic and panel beating workshop at Mele Village on Efate that has started almost five years ago and kept him busy every day.

Gamaly went to primary school at his home Village in North Pentecost and quit at an early age. He then took up mechanical and panel beating training at the Anglican Agape Technical Training Center on North Pentecost.

After one and a half year studies at Agape, he came to Port Vila to do his practical. In the end he decided to find a paid employment in the related area of his training. After working for several auto-repair and panel beating companies for several years, the 23-year-old felt it was time to start his own business.

By 2005 George Gamaly had saved up Vt100,000 and decided to start his business small operating in the back he used to live.
By word of mouth, George found he did not have to go and do big advertizing or looking for customers but rather he had more customers coming to him almost every day.

It was then that families in Mele Village encouraged him to establish his business in the village which reduces such expenses as rent, water, electricity and other similar costs. This was a huge advantage in the overall running costs for George and his auto-mechanic and panel beating business.

Today, the 23-year-old business owner employs five fulltime workers who do most of the mechanical repair work while Gamaly himself take charge of the panel beating and spray-painting.

Gamaly’s Workshop takes on up to five vehicles a week for repair and panel beating but also travels occasionally to Pentecost as well as Luganville, Santo, where the need for auto-repair and panel beating work is becoming more demanding.
Being single, Gamaly has this to say to the young people of Vanuatu: “Get into training, find work, live small and save up as much as you can, quit social life that will ruin your life, start a business of your own with whatever small savings you have and keep looking forward.

“Do not turn back. Dedicate your life to your work and look up to God and move forward before you become too old in life,” he told Daily Post.

On the question of competition with other major companies, George replied: “Don’t look at what other people do or how they are doing. Rather concentrate on your own business. And as long as more cars and vehicles are coming into the country I know my business will keep running,” the young businessman remarked.