Two years ago Jenel Jacobs, a twenty-nine-year-old resident of South Ruimveldt took the plunge into small business, seizing on the opportunity afforded by what, in recent years, has been an intensified level of marketing of North American health and beauty products in developing countries.
Jenel’s modest entrepreneurial initiative offers what she says is a highly responsive local market a range of more than fifty health and beauty products being sold under the popular Aloe Vera brand name; and, she says, her medium term goal is to transform the part-time venture into what she hopes will eventually become a thriving and sustainable business.
The products are derived from the well-known Aloe plant and the range of herbal preparations offered under the brand is promoted as health products with healing properties that provides effective cures for a range of ailments ranging from simple skin conditions to diabetes.
Jenel says that the timing of her entry into the business two years ago appears to have coincided with an upsurge of health consciousness among Guyanese. “We’re actually doing quite well at this time,” she says.
Jenel has made some modest but important strides in her business pursuit. She is now a Distributor and Assistant Supervisor for the product range and, she told Stabroek Business, her earnings are derived both from sales and commissions from recruiting new sales representatives for the product range.
In the absence of a central distribution agency here in Guyana Jenel travels to Suriname once monthly to purchase her products. During her trips to Paramaribo she acquires products both for her own distributorship and for her two ‘Downliners’, persons whom she has successfully recruited to become part of the business.
While Jenel told Stabroek Business that she has found marketing new products in Guyana a challenging pursuit, she says that she is encouraged by the growth of the market here. “The health products have been popular here in Guyana,” she says.
As part of her own product marketing drive Jenel conducts “sessions” four times each month as part of her responsibility to her ‘Downliners and to the local market. The purpose of these sessions is twofold. First, they are designed to attract new people to the business; the other equally important function of her sessions is to expand existing market demand. “Some of our sessions have been quite successful, she says.
According to Jenel business has been sufficiently successful to hasten her pursuit of a full-time local distributorship. She has given herself another year within which to do so, building a clientele in the meantime that is big enough to sustain a long-term pursuit. Meanwhile, Jenel says that she is encouraged by the fact that her pursuit has imbued her with a business orientation. “Apart from everything else there are incentives for doing well including earnings in US dollars, Car Plans for distributors and holidays. This really encourages you,” she says.
