- PHOTO BY ROSS SHEIL
Shop assistant Angela 'Sister' Cammock serves two-year-old customer A.J. Conie and his mother Tracy-Ann Conie (out of picture).
Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
"I'M DOING this out of blind faith!" says Garfield Salmon of his newly-opened Betta Value wholesaler on 76 1/2 Maxfield Avenue. Opened in August, the 32-year-old Trench Town resident hopes its the first step towards his simple ambition of being the next Super Plus.
This week the Maxfield Avenue community was again in the news for all the wrong reasons when 10-year-old Sasha-Kay Brown and her three family members were burnt to death in their home by gunmen. But this young entrepreneur is trying to make a difference.
"I want to be an example that, yes, with assistance, businesses can succeed in our community and provide a service," said Mr. Salmon. The business, he reports, is now out of the red, covering its costs and looking forward to expanding its stock.
Mr. Salmon currently works full-time and is in the second-year of an associate degree in business studies at the University College of the Caribbean's Institute of Management Studies .
THREE FULL-TIME STAFF
It took US$1,000 of his own savings. Assistance from the Agency for Inner-City Renewal (AIR) was also forthcoming with Dr. Henley Morgan lending his connections to the project. The wholesale now has three full-time staff.
Mr. Salmon was, he admits, a baby in the business, but Dr. Morgan, who is a management consultant, has clients such as Lasco and Pepsi, a vital link. Dr. Morgan was able to persuade suppliers to extend 30-day credit and "the business was right off the block," said Mr. Salmon.
"If you are thinking about anything that is good and prosperous, 'Doc' is that 'Mr. Go-Get-it', who takes your development personal, and will himself devise a strategy for you to proceed," he said.
Communities such as Maxfield Avenue suffer, said Dr. Morgan, because "the environment is not friendly to business". But he was persuaded to assist Betta Value, impressed by Mr. Salmon's use of his own capital in the start-up.
"We need to exercise judgement in choosing which businesses to support," explained Dr. Morgan. "We need early victories so we can start to stimulate business growth. Garfield is confident, professional and he has shown every indication that he is likely to succeed."
