Small business owners who constantly fret over the hurdles one never fails to encounter in the pursuit of running a small business just about anywhere in coastal Guyana ought to interact more with their opposite numbers in hinterland communities in order to put their own circumstances into perspective. One businesswoman who can certainly teach her coastal counterparts a thing or two about having the nerve to run a business just about anywhere in hinterland Guyana is Nedrad Joseph who has ‘the gall’ to embrace entrepreneurship in Kamarang, an Amerindian village located at the confluence of the Kamarang and Upper Mazaruni Rivers, in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni Region of Guyana.
Running a successful business in communities like Kamarang requires a particular mindset. You have to begin by taking particular account of where you are, the conditions that obtain and the limitations to what you can accomplish. Beyond those required attitudes, you must sometimes pretend that the boundaries that exist are not there and that you can push yourself beyond the limits that hem you in. Being a seamstress in a community helps. The pursuit ‘ties in’ nicely with some of the particular needs of the community. There are uniforms to be sewn for the schoolchildren and dresses to be created for the women who, even in a hinterland setting, are not unmindful of the ‘feel good’ virtues that attach themselves to ‘looking good.’
