SINCE she has ‘known herself’, Shanice Sinclair has been focused on making money. For starters, she comes from a family of entrepreneurs — her mother owned a catering company, while her aunt operated two nurseries. She remembers organising her friends to run a spa in prep school, and of course getting into much trouble. Come eighth grade, she taught herself how to use Photoshop and made flyers for interested people — at a cost, of course! Her latest and most long-standing venture is her headband business, called Minx Supply Co.

“By 10th grade I figured out that I was really interested in making things and DIY, so I made a headband for myself one day. Somebody in my class saw and she was like, ‘Oh, I like your headband! How much is that gonna cost me now?’ cause she knows that I’m all about this,” she says, rubbing the tips of her fingers together in the urban gesture associated with money, and laughing.

“And so I put a price to it and I made one for her. More people became interested, and when I started getting more orders I decided, ‘Okay, I’m gonna go to the fabric store’ and I bought some fabric,” Sinclair says.

“I was like, ‘Wow, I could actually turn this into something more’, so I decided to give it a name,” she adds. And thus Minx Supply Co was born.

She used the School-Based Assessment component of her Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate principles of business exam as the basis for the company’s business plan. That, plus her knowledge of accounting at fifth form help her to keep proper financial records, while management of business and economics learned at sixth form help in other respects.

For marketing purpose, Sinclair created an Instagram account and has been enjoying much success. The 19-year-old, who graduated Immaculate Conception High School last month, said when she started, she sewed all the products herself. She now employs two people to assist with production. On average, one production session will produce 50 headbands, all handmade.

“It could easily be 300 headbands in three days,” she said. “I like to have stock on hand because I do shows and fairs, etc.”

The company was registered last year and has a website with an online store.

Sinclair makes headbands for all ages, as well as custom items by order. Her products can be found at the gift shop at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston, Zen Boutique in Seventh Avenue Plaza, and for the children’s collection, BabyBop in Mall Plaza. The styles vary and prices range from $350 to $1,500.

How has she been able to run a business for the last three years while attending high school, you might ask.

“You have to build the time. Like take a hammer and nail, and build it,” she tells the Jamaica Observer.

In addition to her regular timetable, Sinclair pursues SAT courses at AIM Educational Services and was involved in extra-curricular activities. She was a consistent honour student, a member of Key Club, and the founder of Girls With A Cause, a club which fund-raises to help the fight against cancer. During Cancer Awareness Month, she produced a special line of headbands, part proceeds of which she donated to the Jamaica Cancer Society. Her reason for founding the club, she discloses, was that her mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

“Sometimes it gets really hard, but you have to decide that, this is what is important right now. You have to plan ahead and do things based on how time-sensitive they are. That is how I started to operate,” says Sinclair, who adds that her parents would forbid her to sew if her academics were not up to scratch.

She thinks that the company has flourished because she is intrinsically motivated to do it, and because the quality of the products remains consistent.

“Even though no one is telling me that I have to do this or I have to do that, it’s just my thing. It is just me getting up and deciding that I am going to do this because that’s what I want to do,” she tells Career & Education.

“I feel like it has room to grow…growth is so visible. There is not a lot of competition for people who are actually designing and making their own headwear. There is always China, but I feel like what I am trying to do is make a statement as a brand, and once people can identify with that brand and see where it is worth it, they will try to encourage it. People are very enthusiastic about Jamaican-made and handmade, so I want to keep that consistent. But I do feel like this is something I can be doing for many years,” says Sinclair.

She explains that, in terms of business, she is not limited to Minx and wants to get a stage where she can just step back and watch it grow.

“It can be a viable means of income. I don’t have to ask my mom for pocket money. I pitch in when I can. I don’t just spend money because I feel like I can. I take a salary every month, and it has enabled me to help out my family,” the young entrepreneur says.

She says that one thing that drives her is encouragement from customers.

“I just want to keep on pushing because people look up to me and people look up to the brand,” she says.

When she spoke with the Observer, she was in the process of reorganising the business, as come September, she will be taking up a 98 per cent scholarship at Howard University in the United States to study management. Her plan is to put together an efficient team to continue production locally, while she manages from abroad.