FOR Paulette Josephs, age is just a number. At 55 years old, she is intent on realising her dream of running her own business.

Already she has created her breakthrough product — Josephs’ Non-dairy Rum Cream, which she hopes to take to market soon.

It is a product inspired by her own lactose intolerance and one which she feels will benefit countless consumers with a similar problem while exciting the taste buds of others who have no problem with milk products.

“Because I am lactose intolerant, when I drank the average rum cream, I always got sick. So for a change, I decided to create my own non-dairy rum cream,” a proud Josephs told Career & Education, adding that her experimentation with her creation began in 2002.

She later shared the idea with a local manufacturer of rum cream via a letter and was called to a meeting. However, after meeting with the company representatives, she heard nothing further from them.

Still, Josephs refused to believe that her product could not be made market ready and so her next stop was the Scientific Research Council — Jamaica’s primary public sector agency with responsible for fostering and co-ordinating scientific research and promoting its application.

“They gave me insight on how to get my product out there. Now with their advice, I am at HEART Trust/NTA doing other courses, which will aid me in having my business up to full speed,” she said.

Joseph’s Non-Dairy Rum Cream is available in more than one flavour — plain, coffee, strawberry, and another constituting a combination of all the flavours. The idea of creating more than one flavour, she said, came at a very upsetting time.

“It was my eldest son’s 21st birthday and I wanted to make the rum cream for his party. I sent someone to get the ingredients and they brought strawberry milk. I was so upset (but) I made it with the milk and asked him to taste it,” she said.

“If I had 10 quarts, it would be finished,” Joseph’s added laughing with glee.

Over the next five years, Josephs hopes to see her products on the local market and hopefully the international market as well. She is currently seeking potential investors for her already registered company Pelorich Enterprise, a name inspired by the first two letters from each of her three children’s names — Peter, Lori and Richard.

“I want to become a part of the manufacturing industry after leaving HEART and have good partners to work with. I want to make my product and give it to the whole world,” she said.

“I really want to get this product out there for people who are lactose intolerant so that they can enjoy rum cream without experiencing any problems,” added the woman, who formed a part of the winning entrepreneurship team to represent HEART Trust in a competition hosted by Junior Achievement Jamaica Limited earlier this year.

“I’m not a junior as the competition titles, so when the teacher decided to put me in the junior achievement competition, I wondered why. But I am really glad to have been apart of it. I learnt much and I am happy to have been awarded the top sales person,” she laughingly told Career & Education.

And just what is it that prompted her to attend HEART at her age?

“I have been at home taking care of my children for over 20 years. Now my children are grown so I decided to start going back to school, instead of staying home and becoming depressed. I wanted to do some courses and HEART was the cheapest place,” she said.

“When I leave HEART, I don’t want to go back home and sit as in the past. I don’t have any parent-teacher meetings to attend anymore. So I am seeking interested individuals to assist me,” Josephs added.