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Unemployment happens… and with it comes two choices – fold your hands and give up in frustration or get creative, think up a business idea and grab a hold of the many avenues where you can develop a business from scratch.

Although Shanna Campbell was not unemployed, her frustrations and limited progress as an employee proved to be the catalyst for her entrepreneurial endeavour. That push evolved and inspired her husband coming on board as managing director and allowing her the ‘creative space’ of a company she formed using ordinary things to create beautiful pieces.

While people, in general, enjoy the juice from a coconut or use its fruit to flavour their pots – Shanna sees something else in it, as well as, other ‘treasures’ our eyes would have seen and perhaps filed away as useless.

Vintage Chic Jewellery and Accessories – which specializes in one of a kind products – is slowly making a name for itself and if the Campbells – Anthony and Shanna- have their way, the company will soon give fellow Jamaicans and tourists an even greater reason to buy their products.

On the cusp of grasping their dreams, Shanna said the start-up process could have been better handled if she had approached it strategically.

“We did not have any structure, I just said one day that I wanted to start my own business, so it wasn’t planned out properly,” she said adding that those thinking of venturing out as entrepreneurs should know what they are getting into first and acquire the necessary information about the type of business.

She has taken her own advice and has since done several courses with Jamaica Business Development Corporation  (JBDC) and other supportive institutions available in Jamaica, so she can better able to manage her business.

“Now we are a bit more structured, especially financially – it’s still a bit unsteady but overall we are in a better place,” she shared with #DoBizJA.

She’s a small business entrepreneur with big dreams and hopes that someday she’ll be able to contribute to the country’s job creation goals by employing others in her company.

The jewelry that Shanna makes are custom ordered by clients, and to keep the company afloat, she has expanded her line of products and is now producing castor oil, coconut oil, shea butter which she said is “used to balance the scale to keep the main product going.”

“If we didn’t have something to complement the jewelry making we would have folded,” she said using the opportunity to also advise new business owners not to “have all of their eggs in one basket”.

Future forecast for the company is to have another location along with their present Hagley Park Road store where one would focus on manufacturing and the other would serve as an outlet.

“The goal is to generate more employment as well as help children to use simple things and utilize their creativity. We want them to look at coconut as not just something to eat or drink but see where beautiful creations can come from it,” said Shanna.

For her it is important to not just generate employment but to teach the new generation about thinking outside of the box!