A Dream Rooted in LaGrange, a Win Years in the Making

Ginny Ritchie, owner of Ginny Rose Studio, held her fiancé’s hand tightly as she waited to hear whether this would finally be her year.

She’d been here twice before: a finalist in Ivy Tech Fort Wayne and Kosciusko County’s New Venture Competition, sharing her plans for a beauty and skincare business in downtown LaGrange, Indiana. Both times, she left without funding. After two losses, she wasn’t sure she would return.

But on Oct. 8, when her name was announced as Ivy Tech Fort Wayne’s 2026 New Venture Competition winner, Ginny breathed a sigh of relief that it had all been worth it. And now she had a $40,000 check to prove it!

“It means the world to me to have won this competition,” she said. “The funding will help me grow my business, but knowing the judges believed in me and my pitch means just as much.”

Putting down roots in LaGrange

Business ownership hadn’t always been the plan.

A medical assistant who became a licensed esthetician in 2019, Ginny once imagined working alongside the California dermatologist known as Dr. Pimple Popper. After working for a couple of spas, she discovered how much she enjoyed doing her own thing and building her own brand, starting her business in spring 2021.

While taking classes at Ivy Tech, Ginny learned about the entrepreneurship program and recognized that she needed more business knowledge. She enrolled and landed in professor Tony Ramey’s classroom.

There, she worked through business names, branding and the practical responsibilities of running a company. She arrived with an assortment of logo concepts—a coconut, a grave and a peace sign among them—and, with Ramey’s guidance, developed a clearer identity for her business.

She earned her entrepreneurship certificate in 2022. Today, Ginny Rose Studio offers customized facials, waxing, spray tanning, Swedish massage and permanent jewelry in downtown LaGrange.

For Ginny, the location has always been part of the vision.

Pitching an esthetics business in a small community meant answering questions about whether the market could support it. She believed LaGrange could, and the community has given her plenty of reasons to keep believing.

When asked who had helped her build the business, she named LaGrange first.

“We might be a very small, overlooked town, but that town has a lot of great people in it,” she said.

She credits the town’s local economic development organization, its chamber of commerce and neighboring businesses with helping her find support and reach customers. Cafés, salons and other downtown businesses contribute to a community where their successes connect.

“Those small towns are so overlooked,” she said. “But they pack a punch when it comes to businesses that they want to keep.”

Their support has helped her grow in the place where she wanted to build her future.

A conversation that helped her come back

Ginny entered her first New Venture Competition in 2022, hoping to gain exposure and share her business plan. She left with experience she could use the next time.

“I saw the vision, but then I needed to learn how to convince others to see my vision,” she said.

In 2024, she pitched again with more experience and a plan to add permanent jewelry to her services.

She finished a close second.

At the time, Ginny was devastated by another loss. She knew she would keep working on her business, but competing again was another question.

That evening, Morgan Williams, chair of Ivy Tech’s Garatoni School of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, found Ginny in the parking lot.

He had a story she needed to hear.

In 2013, Williams entered the same competition and failed to advance past the first round. He continued working on his business, returned in 2015, and won.

He encouraged Ginny to use her disappointment as motivation and come back stronger.

“His own story kind of helped pull me back in,” Ginny said, “and made me realize that this is not the end, this is just the middle.”

Ramey’s encouragement mattered, too. He had helped her shape the business in its early days and continued to believe in its potential. Ginny describes him as one of the people who kept her going.

With their support, she found the strength to plan her next steps.

She invested in the idea anyway

About two months after the 2024 competition, Ginny purchased the permanent jewelry equipment herself, even though she had failed to earn funding through New Venture.

She still believed the service would add value to her business, and the investment paid off. Permanent jewelry became a successful offering in her treatment room and at weddings, bachelorette parties, and vendor events.

The years between competitions gave her time to test ideas, learn what customers wanted, and return with evidence of growth.

“That was the loss I needed to make me better,” she said.

By 2026, she had another expansion plan ready, and the willingness to put herself in front of the judges again.

Getting ready for the next chapter

Ginny’s 2026 New Venture Competition day began with exams for her networking classes.

After her exams, she put on music, danced around the house and started getting ready for the evening.

As she applied the skincare and makeup products she had been testing for her planned product line, the possibilities felt so close. Someday, those products would carry her name.

Competing for the third time was a blur and waiting for results was excruciating. But then she heard, “And the winner of the 2026 New Venture Competition is… Ginny Richie!” The judges saw the potential she had believed in all along, and she was leaving with $40,000 to help bring that vision to life.

With new business expansion funding secured, she plans to develop and market a private-label skincare and makeup line for a range of skin types, particularly sensitive skin. She also plans to purchase equipment for new facial services and create a mobile unit to make transporting equipment to events easier.

Even before she won, Ginny had spent months testing products and working with private-label companies. Clients are already asking when they can buy them.

Williams, who had encouraged her after the previous competition, got to watch her win this time.

“Entrepreneurship isn’t always about winning the first time,” he said. “It’s about having the courage to keep going when things don’t go your way.”

For Ginny, the excitement comes with a clear sense of what follows: more work, new opportunities and a chance to keep growing in the community that has supported her.

“I’m excited to put in the work,” she said, “and show everybody how successful an esthetician in LaGrange County can be.”