“Just start the engine and drive”
Two Jamaican businesswomen in the fashion industry recount how tough times have stoked greater ambition.
Jamaican top model.
© Reporters
From redundancy to thriving business – The Jennifer Williams story
Forty-two year old Jennifer Williams was forced to become an entrepreneur after she was made redundant from a food and distribution company in Jamaica where she had worked for six years as a salesperson. She has never looked back. With a little encouragement and not much money, she started her own fashion design business, Akira Lyn, focusing mostly on swimwear and leisure wear made from crotchet material. “I used to make doilies”, she says of her early interest in sewing. “There was no challenge doing that. I then started creating and putting things together and it looked good.” Williams, whose business is home-based, was able to get wider publicity for her skills through her association with the Jamaica Fashion and Apparel Cluster group, established by the Jamaica Business Development Centre (JBDC), a government agency, which provides business and technical support services to small businesses. Her pieces were shown at the national level at House of Flava, an established fashion house in Jamaica, and at the international level when she was part of a delegation in Brussels last year.
She was also part of a team of local designers who prepared a 30-piece wardrobe for last year’s ‘Miss Jamaica World’ pageant. “I am always happy and excited when I see people wearing my pieces”, she says glowing with pride in being a part of that select group of designers. “When I see my work in the paper or at a photo shoot, it feels good.” Williams, however, says there are challenges in keeping the business afloat, especially in marketing: “People will see your stuff and like it but may say it is too expensive.”
Economic downturn
Running a young business in the current economic downturn can be difficult, especially in getting start-up capital, but she has learnt from a difficult childhood always to look for the opportunities in difficult situations. “Recession prepares you for better things. You use every bad situation as a stepping stone and I am used to recession”, she says. Growing up in Bull Bay, a poor community in the parish of St.Thomas, has been no barrier to her big dreams for the business. “I hope to see myself up there going to China, Africa… the entire world”, she says smiling. She eventually wants her granddaughter, Akira, after whom she named the business, to take it forward. “I am trying to pave the way so that she won’t have to go through what I did while growing up”, she says, fighting back the tears when recalling what seems to have been a tough childhood. While it is difficult to get a business going in these hard economic times, Williams believes that it is good to take risks. Her advice to other aspiring entrepreneurs? “Just start the engine and drive”, she says, “you have to be a go-getter; you can’t give up”. When down to her last few coins, she says she would use what she had to buy material to make one of her pieces. “Don’t be afraid to take chances”, she says.
Aspiring factory owner – Simone Garden
Simone Garden, a 36 year-old mother of three, aspires to one day opening a sewing factory where she can employ several persons in creating leisure wear clothing from crush cotton sheer and bright tie and dye colours. For now, Garden is carving out a niche market for herself in Jamaica’s fledging fashion industry. She owns a small fashion boutique in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, where she sells her own garments. Garden, who opened her boutique doors just three years ago, says she has been sewing since the age of eight. “I started sewing for friends not collecting any money, just sewing because I love it. I love seeing people in my pieces”, she says, recounting the first time she cut a piece of material freehand. With no formal training, Garden says she learnt her skill at the knees of her mother who was a dressmaker and whose mother was a dressmaker and father a tailor.
“I grew up seeing my mother, grandmother and grandfather busy with their own little business”, she says. “I don’t like the idea of working for people; I love being self-employed.” Although she completed secondary education, she says she was motivated to start her own business. She got help from her mother with buying a sewing machine but as the business got bigger she decided to rent a shop in one of the plazas located outside Spanish Town, the capital of St. Catherine, the largest parish in Jamaica.
Unique designs
She says business on the plaza has been slow, especially since the economic downturn, but she finds ways of getting around this by going where the customers are. “I try very hard to be creative. So (customers) even if they don’t want to buy are forced to when they look at the designs. The designs are unusual and have a unique finish.” Garden says most of her clients are persons in the entertainment industry – especially those who wear Dancehall outfits. She however produces for a diverse market including casual, resort and children’s wear. Despite the challenges, it’s her love for her work that keeps her going. She would like to open a factory where she can create jobs for others. “I would love to one day have some good dedicated workers to help me in creating my designs”, she says of her future plans. Garden also got local exposure when she participated in the Caribbean Fashion Week, a popular Caribbean fashion show organised each year in Jamaica which showcases pieces from several Caribbean designers. Meanwhile, her work was also highlighted overseas when she was also asked to create one of the pieces for the wardrobe of last year’s ‘Ms. Jamaica World’.
