Empowering youth through entrepreneurship

Isheba Cornwall, an outspoken 17-year-old student from Excelsior High School in Kingston, has utilised her passion for positivity to push her company, Empower YOUth Tees.

Established in August 2018, the company specialises in selling T-shirts that depict positive messages.

Isheba says that she was never interested in business until she entered grade 10 and was encouraged to consider entrepreneurship. However, her interest was heightened after interacting with other successful young entrepreneurs at the Dream Jamaica summer camp.

She noted: "It was when I spoke to a friend of mine, Ja'dan Johnson, co-founder of NextGenCreators, that I began to think about starting my own business. This time, I was serious, but I realised that I did not want to do something I was not passionate about.

"In 2018, I was selected to be a part of the Youth Can Do IT (YCDI) Women in IT Mentorship Programme. This is where I got the inspiration to 'just do it,'" she noted.

"After talking to the founder of the YCDI, Lianne McNaughton, I was inspired to just run with the idea because if not now, I would not have given it a second thought later on."

Reflecting on how words of encouragement energised and empowered her, Isheba said that she decided to use positive phrases on T-shirts.

Isheba recounted that she had to make sacrifices in order to come up with the initial capital to start the business, saying that she had to save her lunch money. Close friends and fellow directors of the company, Trevon Fletcher and Alexi Thomas, also contributed some of their allowance to the business. Her family provided further capital to meet the shortfall.

Key to her business' success has been the use of several strategies, including the use of social media in her marketing campaign. "My target audience is young people ages 13-25. Therefore, I use social media as a tool to reach out to them, and it works. Being more engaged with young people on social media has pushed me way ahead of many companies," she said.

Isheba places priority on providing high-quality customer service by being prompt when messaged on the company's social media platforms, having quick delivery times, and by building rapport with many of her customers. Simply put, "We build a working relationship with them so that they can feel like they are a part of something great."