Handcart a stepping stone for future business owner
TWENTY-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD BRENDON Clarke, although having seven subjects in the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC), uses his cart to transport goods in downtown Kingston.
His fees depend on the distance and the amount of goods being transported.
“It vary. It fluctuate. Memba say sometimes coffee, sometimes tea, so you are going to have a day when probably you make a $5,000, sometimes a six. It just depends. On half-day like a Wednesday, you might make a four grand ($4,000),” said Clarke.
Not yet a father, he makes enough to take care of just himself.
“Me pencil it out before in terms of bills, pardna, and savings. Me wouldn’t a do it if it never did a work out. This work out better for me, a million times more than if me did a work in a the wholesale back deh so. Because one, you work at your own pace, and, two, you get a chance to meet persons that can turn into clients. And probably what me work in a week in there, me work that it in two days out here,” he said.
Clarke grew up in Manchester but now lives in Kingston. His CXC subjects include mathematics and English. He graduated from Ardenne High School with four subjects and enrolled in evening classes for the others.
PEER PRESSURE
He showed The Sunday Gleaner his arm covered in tattoos, which he said was a result of peer pressure, limiting his chances of getting a job in the formal system.
“My mother did kind of migrate, so I end up following friends and wasn’t attending classes, and stuff like that, so a peer pressure,” said Clarke.
He doesn’t believe that he is wasting his time or talent by pushing a cart, however, he noted, “The cart is not something I’m going to do permanent, I have a plan and a goal in mind. This is a stepping stone. I want to own my own business.”