“My journey with Temech is a love story,” Dana Normatov. “They gave me everything I needed for my business success – both technical knowledge and emotional support.”
Dana is soft-spoken, yet there’s steel in her silk glove; strength, conviction and passion pour forth.
She grew up in Tel Aviv. Her family became more religious and moved to Beit Shemesh when she was 17. She studied special education.
During the first year of the program, at age 18, Dana got married. In the second year, she had her first child, and in the final year, she did her internship while expecting her second.
“I went from graduation straight to the delivery room.”
She started job hunting with two tiny children and was given hours in several resource rooms.
“I was expecting again,” she shared, “but my third was born in the sixth month. She lived just two weeks.
“A doctor told me, ‘You’re working too hard.’
“‘It’s just a resource room, what’s hard about that?’ I responded. She told me, ‘You’re teaching from your gut, not from your head.’”
After that, it was too painful for Dana to return to her job.
And then she was expecting again. It was a complicated pregnancy and Dana was in and out of the hospital. There was no way she could hold down a job.
She was a talented seamstress and would take small alteration jobs — 50 NIS here, 80 NIS there. “Altogether, it was under 500 NIS a month.
By the time the baby was born, their financial situation was dire.
“My husband suggested I look for a sewing job because I enjoyed it. I started working in a bridal studio and realized I had golden hands.”
Her salary, though, was abysmal; she was earning 1,600 NIS a month.
Then she came across Temech. “I started going to their lecturers. The idea that I could create my own business, that I could earn real money for my time and skills was a gift.”
Temech connected her with Yad Elizer, and they covered the cost of opening a studio. Dana rented a studio, bought equipment, and opened a business creating custom evening gowns.
“Customers would come in the morning, I’d take their measurements and plan their dream gown. They’d spend a few hours doing errands, and by the end of the morning, their gown was ready.”
The very first month, she earned double her initial income. And it took off from there.
“Over eight years, I was in three Temech networking groups. I kept learning and got a steady stream of clients and partnerships through the group. You make quality connections there you can’t easily find anywhere else.
“I started at 50 NIS an hour and then slowly raised my prices to 300 NIS an hour. My business was flourishing. Temech had changed my life.”
Then everything came crashing down.
Dana
got sick. Very sick.
“It was 2020, and I was expecting my eighth. I got corona and ended up in ICU.
“I felt close to death.
“Baruch Hashem, I recovered. But there had been nerve damage in my hands. I can’t cook, I can’t clean, I can’t chop a salad or peel vegetables.
“And I can’t sew.”
Her income was gone. What now?
“My husband told me, it’s like Hashem made you retire. So why don’t you do what you wanted to do when you retired?”
Dana had a dream.
“People often told me horror stories about gowns they had had sewn. I’d see the gowns, and they weren’t poorly made. But there had been a misunderstanding, a glitch in the communication between the seamstress and the client.
“I had a dream that one day, I’d train other seamstresses one day. And now that day was here.”
Dana created a comprehensive course comprised of 12 meetings, each two hours long. The first hour of each meeting focused on marketing and building a business, the second was a deep dive into the craft of sewing – how to connect with the customer and match your work to their expectations.
Dana approached me and asked if she could give the course in Temech. We didn’t have an opening for that exact course, but I suggested we create a networking group specifically for seamstresses.
Dana gave over some of her course material, as well as the Temech material. She brought in experts to speak about niching, pricing, and building a pension — something most women knew nothing about.
“Instead of sewing a dress in a day,” I told her, “you now teach 20 women how to create a flourishing business.”
Dana continued finding other ways to use her talents. “Temech connected me with a marketing company,” she shares. “I learned how to use my verbal skills to launch marketing projects. All the skills I’d used in my studio—the efficiency, the focus, the connection with others—I’m using them in other ways.
She’s about to launch her seamstress course while continuing to offer the networking course.
“Temech helped me build my first business. And when I was forced to close it, they were there for me again,” she says.
“They offer everything a religious woman needs to advance and succeed.”
