Yolynda Softleigh displaying some of her products

You do not have to be a man to possess testicular fortitude. Think Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister nicknamed the Iron Lady.

And sometimes it takes adversity to bring out that kind of strength in people. Yolynda Softleigh is one such person.

“I had put on a lot of weight and I stay jus suh and fall down. I went into the hospital and they say it was a heart attack and after then I used to be sick very often and I realise people really don’t have sympathy on you now when you have your problems. For a time they stuck with me but then they started to do things that put me out and people had a lot to say,” she related.

According to Softleigh, one day she went to make a report to the GPOC’s human resources manager about another employee with whom a situation had developed.

“They wanted me to lift things and if you have a heart problem there’s certain things you cannot do; so I went to complain and the human resources manager told me “girl you gon wait for de post office knock you off instead of you come off” and I took it hard.”

Softleigh said she had been working with the corporation for five years and was appalled at the reaction so she eventually resigned and sought a less fatiguing pursuit. Just over a year ago she joined with a friend to start a bottling business.

“I make the bottled seasoning, green seasoning we call that, pepper sauce, syrups, flavoured plantain chips, plantain wedges and fudge.” She markets her products under the GUYPRIDE Natural label.

However, she stated that the partnership did not last and she decided to branch out on her own. In March Yolynda accessed the government’s Women of Worth (WOW) programme with the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry which provides single parent mothers with loans from $100,000 to $250,000, collateral free at 6% interest for business purposes.

The loan has made an immense difference for Yolynda’s business.

“I had wanted some more blenders and that kind of stuff. You don’t actually get the cash in your hand. I was able to buy a little more and actually pay down for a blender that is about $200,000, an industrial blender. So it has helped in making it easier because I have more utensils. I have been able to work faster and get the stuff off faster rather than if I was using just one or two blenders.

I used to do like about 20 bottles per batch, whatever I could handle; now it’s about 100 bottles per batch,” she stated. She was also able to purchase a machine to seal the bottles.

Softleigh said it takes a day to churn out a batch of her bottled seasoning and she does two to three batches per week. The seasoning retails at $500 per bottle and she added that her products are usually all sold.

Her recurring expenses in the business?

“On average, about $70,000 monthly.” A family member assists her with the business and Softleigh said she is now looking to employ the individual on a permanent basis.

Her clientele consists primarily of friends and has been growing through word of mouth marketing but she added that she was also able to garner more exposure through the recently held Human Services Ministry’s “Feminition” women’s exposition where she exhibited. Softleigh has also been benefiting from another government initiative.

“Right now I’m about to get my stuff marketed through the [New] Guyana Marketing Corporation (New GMC) and take some stuff into the different supermarkets and even access overseas markets. They were the ones that also had a part in making me do this as a bigger business because they saw the product and said it was a very good product and they encouraged me to get it on stream. They’ve been giving me ideas on preparation and labelling and that kind of stuff,” she explained.

She added that the New GMC had also sought assistance for her through Guyana Office for Investment (GO-INVEST) but she decided not to go that route since she did not want to create too much debt.

Softleigh believes the WOW initiative is a good one but stressed that sometimes there is a need for cash in hand.

“I don’t think that the loan should just be accessible for you to buy like the equipment alone. My business deals with perishables and I cannot buy the amount of seasoning from this place and put it in the freezer; I have to use it up right away. So I think persons should be allowed to have access to some amount of cash so that they can purchase these things as they need them instead of you mainly just purchasing equipment because you won’t want equipment all the time,” she posited.

She wants to pay off the loan by year end and is already thinking of another business venture.

“I want to open something like a soup kitchen, where persons can come and get, cheap, tasty and nutritious food. I would say like a $300 food where you get a salad, a little greens, that kinda thing; some soups and so on. So even a child could get a food for $150 and so.”

However, Softleigh said she was not looking at the WOW scheme to pursue that idea.

“ I want to speak to a couple people and see if I could get the kind of access to cash or so to do it because I have small children and I know sometimes persons can’t afford to give their children the proper nutritious meals when the day come and a lot of children does be hungry. So if I could get something like that I would be so happy,” she said.

Softleigh said all that is required in terms of start up was a location which she already had in mind and she intended to speak to the overseas-based individual who was left in charge of it after the owner died.

“It’s in Lodge and that’s an area where they have a lot of underprivileged children and that kind of thing who need the assistance. Then too, I would like to help other young women like myself, young mothers.

It really hard because those jobs nowadays people don’t really cater for you, you have children, that’s your problem. I would be flexible. People in business don’t flex with you if you have young children. I would use like flexible work hours and so,” she said.

The mother of five revealed that she separated from her husband, the father of her two youngest children, just over 10 years ago.

“The smallest was still a baby. We separated because he didn’t want me to work and that started to pose a lot of different problems. A day I went home from work and he said to send the keys and don’t tell him anything; so I sent the keys and didn’t tell him anything and that was the last time I live there.”

Now she only has the three youngest to care for and she added that her mother has been very supportive by stepping in for her whenever she cannot be there for the children. Her eldest child, she said, had also been helping her financially.

“To get to the point that I was at with the licensing money, to put systems in place, remember, the bank only bought certain things after; he was helping me because he works in Suriname in the interior so he would help if I got a problem.”  

It was acquiring the licence, she said, from the Food and Drug Analyst Department that was her biggest challenge.

“You have to live up to every standard and you have to have a place that is conducive to the kind of production you’re doing. As long as you get past that you don’t have a problem,” Softleigh related.

Her advice to those wishing to follow her path: “You have to know what it is you want to do and set your mind that it will be hard for the first but if you focus and keep following your dreams you would get their eventually.”