Naigulevu grateful for assistance
ALISI Naigulevu has applauded the Government for assisting families, especially women, in running their own businesses by enhancing their entrepreneurial skills and injecting much needed capital.
This is after, 12 women recenlty graduated from recently a three-day training under the Trade Enhancement Programme (TEP) of the Ministry of Trade, Co-operatives, Small and Medium Enterprises and Communications.
One of these trainees was Mrs Naigulevu, 46, who hails from Nadogo, Cakaudrove, as she operates a small business of home condiments such as tamarind chutney, jam, sweet chili sauce, tartar sauce and mayonnaise with her husband and their daughter.
“This business that my husband and I started began in 2019 at home, we began this business from the idea that everyone wanted their food to be delicious and these add-ons made them tastier. And so, we started making our own different sauces that we had taught ourselves to make,” she said.
“It started with just making tamarind chutney, I made many attempts to perfect it and sometimes would ask other people for advice or tips on how to improve my product.”
Mrs Naigulevu added that after a discussion with her husband on how much the chutney was loved by the family and other people, they decided to start selling it and turn it into a business.
“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I had a job and this was a side hustle to help earn a little more money for my family. When the pandemic hit, I was let go from my work and was solely focusing on this small business of ours. And we only had this business as a source of income for the family to help live each day that went by.”
“And since I had a lot of time on my hands, this helped me open my mind to how much more we could grow this business and do things I have never done before. I then started to budget and set aside money for the business, what ingredients we needed to buy and how much we could sell it for in order to have a reasonable profit.”
Mrs Naigulevu added that they had to be disciplined with money and follow certain guidelines in order to make the business into a successful one.
“This made me realise that a business is run different from a family. It needs its own budget and needs to grow on its own.”
“People are always saying that when there’s an i-Taukei business, it will eventually stop running, we are here to prove them wrong and in order to do that we need to have the belief and passion for the business.”
The Ministry through the TEP also provides businesses the opportunity to apply for a $1,000 grant to give these small businesses a leg-up.
The programme is aimed at creating employment, formalising businesses, inspire entrepreneurship for those most vulnerable in our communities and to enhance services for our fellow Fijians.