Cosmetics company hires university students
THROUGH HER company, East Cosmetics Supplies Company Limited, businesswoman Jayshree Nagrani has managed to leverage her clients’ love for her products and their desire for additional income by employing university students as social media influencers.
Nagrani’s company imports hand soaps, shower gels and hair wax that are manufactured in Istanbul, Turkey. While she knew that her products had become a hit locally, she was pleasantly surprised when a university student reached out to her via Instagram to say that she loved the company’s Soft Touch hair gel so much that she had become an ambassador.
The business owner decided, after communicating with the student, to give her a few of the products to sell and make a profit.
“She is such a hard-working girl, and she goes to school and she works on the side. She is a student and a hairdresser,” she said of the student, who, she surmised, is no more than 20 years old.
Nagrani did a hashtag search of her products and saw another student marketing the product on her Instagram page. She reached out to her and found that the 22-yearold student worked full time while going to school and was hoping to improve her financial standing so she could accomplish some targeted goals. In an effort to help her realise her goals, the business owner gave her some of the products to sell and make a profit.
“Through social media, I have young people, three or four primarily right now, who have reached out to me, and I have reached out to them. They are interested in the product, they use the product,” she said.
“Where I am creating jobs, it might not be a lot at the moment, but to see these young people so hungry to learn the business world, but still going to school and still making that money on the side, it is incredible,” she told Growth & Jobs.
Nagrani, who was a middle-school teacher for 14 years in Florida, came back to Jamaica after her father was murdered in 2014 to assist her mother operate their family business.
“The thing is, coming from being a teacher to running a business in Jamaica, my head was all over the place. I didn’t know what I was doing,” she admitted.
Prior to her father’s death, the company sold several products, but feeling overwhelmed, a decision was made to downsize and just focus on the top-selling products. The company provides jobs for about 15 persons.
Nagrani’s company also provides products for several beauty supply stores in Jamaica and assists budding cosmetologists by providing gift baskets with Soft Touch products to girls in cosmetology school. She partners with a local salon to make this possible.
‘Where I am creating jobs, it might not be a lot at the moment, but to see these young people so hungry to learn the business world, but still going to school and still making that money on the side, it is incredible.’