CONRAD Allen reckons most persons don’t see the many opportunities for business in Jamaica.

It may be that the tough economic environment may make it more difficult than it needs to be to become an entrepreneur.

But the owner of Cover Me Up Tent got his ‘ah-ha’ moment a few years ago, when he pursued a simple idea that would fulfil a very specific need.

“My fiancée did a house opening at Bogue and called to get a tent,” said Allen, “but when it arrived, it was dirty and the service was expensive.”

A quick check around revealed that only one other person was providing tents in the Montego Bay area.

So he and his wife went into the rental business, focusing on wedding and party events.

Eventually they branched out into providing other event needs such as chairs, cooling and generator units.

Even then, after a few years in business, they still don’t have an office.

“The overhead cost of doing businesses like that is high, and I don’t see the need for it right now,” said the businessman, who spent years working in customer service before taking on a full-time business. “We now have up to five steady employees who make sure that the clients get what they need.”

Allen, whose business operates out of Montego Bay, plans to increase his coverage across the island over the next three to five years. But the company will focus more on the wedding market and less on party events.

Research showed that Jamaica as a destination market for weddings has really taken off, according to Allen.

At the same time, it has been been getting more difficult for he and his wife to manage the late night events.

And even though parties might not have been as difficult at the beginning, the business faced the typical challenges faced by start-ups, such as difficulty accessing loans.

He had to pool savings and get help from family to finance the start-up.

His prior experience in customer service may have made it slightly more difficult to find the right workers who “have a mindset of what you want to accomplish”.

Still, he believes he has a few contract workers who fit the bill now.

Having gotten over the major start-up hurdles, a main driver for Allen now is that he feels he can’t make any mistakes now as a man in his mid-forties.

“It would be hard to make a comeback now,” he said.