WHEN 30-year-old Linace Gordon-Coleman’s back was against the wall from being unemployed for years, she made a decision that would change her life without end.

Gordon-Coleman, against a climate of economic challenges which permeated every level of the Jamaican society, decided to become her own boss.

“I’m a trained teacher; I went to the University of the West Indies. but after leaving I found myself in three years of unemployment from 2010 to 2013. I wasn’t able to get a job at all and so I decided, even though I am not employed in the government sector like I had hoped, no one took my skills and talent from me — I still can do something,” she shared with the Jamaica Observer North & East in an interview on Saturday.

It was this mindset that influenced her to open a travel service agency and book store. The company, Assistu Online Services, offers assistance to visa applicants, books flights for prospective travellers, and assists people in completing online forms, among other things. The business, she informed, has since expanded and now requires three employees instead of one.

The Portlander said at first she encountered challenges operating the business, but after acknowledging her limitations of not knowing how to effectively run a business she enrolled in Heart Trust/NTA where she did a diploma in entrepreneurship level 3.

“When I did that course I realised how much I did not know. So it was good enough to have my skills and open doors, but there were more intricate things. How do I market this? How do I get people to buy into what I am doing? How do I balance the book? How do I motivate my employees?” the Campion College past student mentioned.

She also recalled that in the early phase of the business she had become ill and, without health insurance, treatment had put a strain on her pocket.

This, in addition to her discovery of the Heart course, she said, motivated her to form the Portland Entrepreneurs Association, which, she summed, could be used to seek health insurance as well as to educate inexperienced entrepreneurs.

“They said to me ‘listen, you need to do something for us. We need training that is not so expensive; we need health cards; we need to have a voice in the town where we can actually make a difference’. I said, ‘Okay fine, let me put an association together,’” she shared.

The businesswoman said she went to the Companies Office of Jamaica and registered the association, which now operates out of Port Antonio.

The association’s aims and objectives, she explained, are to empower entrepreneurs within the parish through training in marketing strategies and customer service, as well as to create and maintain an atmosphere for the expansion of businesses.

“We realised, too, that a lot of businesses were opening but also closing in a short space of time. It wasn’t because they didn’t have good ideas or money, but they didn’t know how to execute or manage the business. So we come in and help those who are starting, from writing their business plans to keeping the business going.

“I couldn’t sit down and be inactive anymore, waiting for someone to give me a job. I had to be creative and with that I have a duty to help others,” she said.