Growth & Jobs | A passion for business - Denise Wright passing on her self-taught entrepreneural skills to young people

Two years into her newly found passion of supplying eggs for the local market, Denise Wright, a teacher at St Catherine High School, is now ready to expose young people to entrepreneurship.

Wright, from her own small chicken farm, is able to supply 15 trays with two and a half dozen eggs per tray to the local market each week.

“My business is growing week by week. Some weeks, I supply more. I have an aptitude for business, so I applied myself. For me, it’s about dedication and the urge to be a successful entrepreneur,” Wright revealed, adding that she started from nothing, using her own savings to finance the initial operation given the challenges associated with accessing funding to start a small business.

“My determination, coupled with the fact that I am guided by two coaches who are very successful entrepreneurs, has led me to the point where I feel compelled to coach young people who have a passion for business but are shying away,” Wright, who recently convened a workshop to expose young people to entrepreneurship, told The Gleaner.

“Looking around, I can see a lot of young persons who could also turn their passion into profit-making ventures, so I embarked on this initiative.”

Wright disclosed that she had 18 young people between the ages of 13 and 18, drawn from high schools in Kingston and St Catherine, attending the workshop, where they were exposed to areas such as critical thinking, money management, and collaborative skills, which are important for the 21st century.

“I am seeing positive results in just a month after the first workshop. I now have two groups out there doing their own business,” she said, beaming.

Wright said that one group with two partners – Shawn Young and Victoria Stewarston – is engaged in manufacturing errand caps, headwear that women can put on if they have to hastily run errands and don’t have the time to style their hair.

According to her, the other group, consisting of three partners – Daniel Tavares, Patrica Reid, and Sheree Mills – has established a social enterprise network and is selling hats, T-shirts, and other merchandise with their message of encouraging youth to speak up.

Tavares, who along with the other two set up ‘Next Generation Youths’, told The Gleaner that the workshop has helped him and his partners to perfect their business idea, pushing them closer to their desired goals of being entrepreneurs.

Wright said she intends to have more workshops in every parish targeting 1,000 young people over a one-year period.

“However, I would love to see persons from the business community collaborating with us in this initiative,” she added.

She revealed that the groups were able to get their start-up capital from their own savings and assistance from family members.