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ground and provide legal services to different firms for seven
years. My sister’s last employment was also with a law firm. How has COVID affected your business?
Even while working for others, we used to make roti parcels Drastically. I made a loss of more than $70,000 last year.
and sell it at work. So, we had this business mind already by And for a small business, that’s a lot of money. I’ve been
generating small income. called for meeting after meeting and they have been asking
Probably the hardship that we were going through gave us for a COVID price. We are already committed, we have bank
the chance to generate more income through a small busi- repayments, business loans. We cannot cut our price just im-
ness. Then one day, a very close friend’s sister said to me, mediately because of COVID. They require the same service,
“Neelam you are so much into doing this small bit and helping they require the same time, the same kind of chemicals and
people. Why don’t you invest into a business, a cleaning equipment but they want it at reduced price. So yeah, basi-
business?” I said, “Oh, it’s going to be difficult because we cally, yeah, a huge loss, suffered. I lost staff too.
don’t know how to go about doing this.” And she told me how
important the market is, and that this type of business was You were a trainer with the Fiji Bloom program last year.
very famous overseas but not as much in Fiji. What skills did you teach the participants?
When I started in 2004, there was not much competition. My mentee was not registered with her business license.
My sister Neelma, was the one who pushed me to take the She didn’t have an exemption certificate. So, I literally sat
idea on running a small business which was suggested to me. down with her in the FRCS office for two hours and got all
She filled the FDB loan application form and lodged it on my her documents in place. I took her to the Nausori DO’s office
behalf. We got a small loan from FDB to start, and the deposit personally and got her license issued. I ensured that she is in
from FNPF. And once that approval kicked in, we also got a compliance and I made sure that she is one of the applicants
$500 grant from the government to get into a small business. for the concessional loan by the government.
So, I had two employees straight away doing marketing and We got her business tidied up with her legal documents so
my sister was another employee too, managing the accounts that she can be in the market competing with others. After
and everything while I was still working outside. We had that, we worked on her financial literacy skills. She had many
begun with doing two shifts in a day, so, one was from 8am to businesses like, she was selling crabs. She had a billiard store.
5pm and the other one was from 11pm to 5am. She had a cupboard purchased from Courts and she used to
We started to clean some of the law firms using our con- store food stuff and sell it in her village to make money out
tacts and then hitting on tenders in the newspapers. So while of it.
cleaning small offices during the day, we had Carpenters But all this income was coming to one point and she used
Shipping as our evening shift from 4pm to 9pm. For two years, it to pay those she took loans from, pay for her household
I didn’t have any life but to just be at the site always super- goods, pay for her bills, pay for her church services. There
vising, seeing that everything is done because there is a lot of was no separation of business income from personal expenses.
risk involved. The bottom line was that she was not paying herself any
We grew into hair and beauty because my sister was taking wages or salary. So we talked about that, how to manage
a lot of interest in the beauty side. In 2010 she studied at that. And in between, as soon as they find that they are facing
the beauty school in Nadi and then we had Salon 21 at Pacific difficulty they are open to contact us.
House. Last year, we signed it off to another person, but my I told her, “we all started from scratch in our business. You
sister still operates under that name from our apartment in are doing the same thing. So, this is how we grow together.”
Toorak. So, we’re saving on rent but we’re still in business.
The legal side is basically I do debt collections using my How important is this sort of training?
legal experience. It’s so important. Even for me, the other trainings I have
I am a member of WEBC, Women Entrepreneurs Business been involved in have made me think about my own business.
Council. That’s how we got introduced to South Pacific Busi- I wasn’t mentored in my own business. I just walked through.
ness Development and the microfinance ladies. When ladies For me, I realised I need a website for my business. For the
have very small businesses, they need ideas to just jump in salon we have one but for the janitorial business, we never
and do it. So, things like financial literacy, how to manage had a website. So we’re going to build one now.
your cash and stuff, it’s not known, and we teach.
What most inspires you about the women you mentor?
What are some of the biggest lessons you have learned in That they had questions, that inspired me, that they were
business? showing their skills. They were interested in coming, they
My biggest lesson is managing employee issues. A cleaner wanted to know, they were ready to learn.
would come for a week or for two days and will leave without This is quite an early age for me to be mentoring. You know,
giving you a notice. There are times where I would just sit most people do mentoring after their retirement but for me,
down and fall into tears because there are no employees at I’m open to doing it and meeting with people.
work. If they’re leaving, in the contract, we only ask them to
give us seven days prior notice.
Islands Business, April 2021 35