Dr Ivanah Thomas – How to operate a U.S. multi-million dollar establishment
“Is it easy to be an entrepreneur and to be successful in business? No it’s not. How bad do you want it?”, communicated founder of Caring First Inc. and co-founder of Fruitalicious, Dr. Ivanah Thomas, PhD.
Recently, Dr. Thomas sought to positively influence the members of The Young Investors’ Club of the University of the West Indies Mona Campus (YIC). Her presentation happened in GLT3, at the Mona School of Business and Management (North).
Dr. Thomas has a good number of entrepreneurial ventures under her belt. However, her main focus is targeted towards her first and primary business based in Orlando, Florida called Caring First Inc. This venture grossed around $5 million USD in 2013.
During the meeting, she gave valuable insight to the young group. She shared a few tips that aspiring young business people can benefit from. These tips included:
-“You have to have that burning desire. You have to have passion. It drives you.”
-“Give a name to this passion. This business idea that you have, name it.”
-“Do your research. Who are your competitors. What is the legal process? You have to do thorough research.”
-“Do not share your vision… especially with folks who you probably think mean you well. A lot of them don’t and only wish to discourage you, distract you or steal your idea.”
-“Seek out true helpers to help under-gird you financially when you first start out. Many people overestimate the profits and underestimate the costs.”
-“You have to also be flexible. Sometimes you have to tweak things a little bit to meet the needs of the market that you’re serving.”
-“Share your story with the right persons. Involve people who are going to completely buy into your vision, and your mission.”
-“Be able to market your services and your product.”
Several of the club’s members were moved by Dr. Thomas’ presentation. Nursing Students of Class 2019 and first year Banking and Finance student: Suannequeie Walker, Shanice Barrett and Trichell S. Morris respectively, all felt the need to share their experience with teenBOSS.
Ms. Walker stated, “I garnered that if you want something in life badly enough, then there are no boundaries to hold you back. As a result, I feel empowered to pursue my dreams of becoming an entrepreneur, nurse and novelist extraordinaire. I want everyone to know, that the right amount of passion and tenacity exerted towards a dream can bring it to life.”
Ms. Barrett shared, “I learned that every successful business starts out with a passion. However, inevitably you will be presented with unforeseen obstacles. Therefore, one must possess tenacity, and the ability to be flexible especially in a dynamic society. Her presentation was very insightful and inspiring. It had really reached out to me as an aspiring nurse with a business mind.
Ms. Morris expressed, “I felt empowered to know that someone from my country is that successful in a first world country. I want people to know that your geographical area does not define who you are and what you desire to become.”
About the YIC
The UWI Young Investors’? Club is the only Investment based club at the University of the West Indies Mona. The YIC’s primary focus revolves around educating students about: Entrepreneurship, Equities Trading and Foreign Currency Trading. The organisation goes about doing this using top tier industry professionals to share tips based on experience. They also provide other kinds of informative presentations.