From Miss Universe to Entreprenuer

On the football cup finals evening, soon after she took the crown of Miss Universe 2007, Lucia Senášiová talked openly about her dream to become an entrepreneur.During the time of her beauty reign she underwent the transformation from a glamorous blonde into a smiling and selfconfident brunette. A year later, her words came true. The Miss, who is shortly going to hand the crown over to the most beautiful Slovak girl to replace her on the throne, runs her own agency today, passing her experience on. A model and the Queen Mary agency owner in one person Lucia Senášiová (24).

Lucia is no beginner to the beauty business. Her loveliness has been taking breaths away since she was fourteen years old. She got her first modelling experience in Japan, Italy and the USA. For her, taking part in the final of the beauty contest of Miss Universe is only a natural development of a model. However, in the course of her beauty reign she has not been able to avoid pitfalls. “If a girl has not yet tried modelling, she has to learn hard discipline. It is necessary to arrive everywhere on time, delays will not be tolerated. You can even learn a better lesson from a sudden loss of privacy as one finds oneself immediately under a microscope.

Luckily I didn’t panic,“ said Lucia who has always done her best in keeping a level head, although she was not pleased to have read untrue details about her private life in the press. Many times she was shocked as the details referred to the things that she would only confide in her closest friend.

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Thanks to her commitment and the successes in the area of modelling, she has fulfilled her dream. She has set up a modelling agency called Queen Mary and now she looks at the beauty world from the other bank.

“Finally I am the boss. I do not have to get up early, at five, to catch the Milan – Naples train to make money. Although I enjoyed being photographed and meeting new people, I’ve lost my enthusiasm. Now I take it as a form of entertainment and I do photo sessions only with those I already know. Modelling is a good earner to keep myself going, however I am still learning how to run a business. At the very beginning, she revealed, she found it difficult to raise her voice when talking to her girls. She has learned that, too.

“When a girl of a great potential comes to my agency, I am quick to explain to her that from now on McDonalds is excluded from her menu because it’s the reason behind the folds on her belly and bad skin,” laughs the model who is happy that she does not have to deal with issues like these any more and, at long last, after ten years of living frugally, she can indulge in just anything she feels like having. She is an advocate of the saying: ‘No work no cake’ and has never been a type of a woman who would link arms with a man for his money only. She has always been able to earn enough for herself.

“I enjoyed sitting in my home agency in Milan rearranging photos in other girls’ books. My manager used to say that once I’d have finished with modelling I would certainly work for her. And now I am a manager myself and I have my own agency. I have to confess that I learn on the go and sometimes I can get burned, too. At present, problems such as “I have put on weight and tomorrow on the underwear photo session I will look as if I was pregnant” are replaced by dealing with more practical things, e.g. when a model misses the plane I need to agree with the client on a new date or find a replacement for her,” says Lucia who wants her agency to develop into a successful business based on the beauty of Slovak girls. She is proud of the fact that they are already known all over the world.

“People from abroad are writing to me. They congratulate us on the beautifully designed agency website and ask us whether they can make something similar for their own companies. Many girls from the Czech Republic contact us. One of them has wrote to me about her problems finding an agency because of her bigger breasts. She sent me her photos and we took her on immediately. She is excellent for our agency. These are exactly the types we would like to have.”

Senášiová confesses that at present she mostly enjoys producing wall calendars to which her team has been giving a lot of their time recently. She feels it’s exactly the space for her self-fulfilment. “In December we produced a wall calendar for a client. He was so satisfied with it that this year he has ordered calendars for all his companies from us. I am happy to see that we have met all the client’s requ­irements.”

For an attractive model whose sex appeal takes many people’s breaths away it was her career in modelling that has prepared her for a career in business. Modelling and extensive experience in the world of fashion and feminine beauty have also taught her business strategy.

She knows how to draw her clients back. She gives them an excellent offer for a high quality product. Foreign clients are satisfied as they are saving money and the agency is happy, too, about the paid invoices.

By SK Magazine
Photo: Archive L.S., B. Šimončík, J. Zemiar

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