Jennifer Groves-Jackson – Mom, businesswoman, superwoman

Despite giving birth to a son just under a year ago and raising another about to enter high school, Jennifer Groves-Jackson still manages to perform her duties as a customer service manager, operate a wedding planning and consultancy business, and go to school.

Having been in customer service for over 12 years, she expects the best not only for her clients but for herself. And on those occasions when she became the victim of substandard service, her solution was always to take on the job herself.

“I am multi-talented. I pride myself in knowing how to do a lot of stuff, because for me, I like perfection,” she told the All Woman matter-of-factly.

“I am a licensed aesthetician, I am a licensed nail tech, I can sew, I am not licensed or anything there, but then I can help myself. I know when a garment is constructed properly. I can make you a skirt, a shirt, a teddy bear and I can sew drapes and bed spreads,” she said.

In her typical style, she decided to start her own wedding planning business and magazine to help couples create their perfect weddings after her efforts to create her own led to endless frustrations. She found that there was not a lot of information online advising people how to create a top-notch destination wedding, and so she started Nuptials, an online wedding magazine with a lot of Caribbean flavour.

“It is for those who need information and cannot find a wedding planner,” she said, while pointing out that her husband thought she was crazy when she first came up with the idea.

He has since come on board, however, and is an equal partner in her business venture. Together, the two tackle the job of creating a healthy environment for their children while managing their business.

“One of the reasons that I chose my husband to go into partnership with is because at midnight, when something pops up in my head, I can say ‘babes so and so and so’. I could not do that with somebody else who has another family,” Groves-Jackson pointed out.

The mother of two spends her mornings at her full time job, then rushes home in the evening to have mandatory dinner with her family. It’s something she cannot miss she said, unless the family decides to eat out, but with her husband being such a “fantastic cook” this is rarely the case. Work for her, she said, doesn’t end until about 11 o’clock at nights.

“I have to balance my entire office, I have to balance my work and if somebody else calls me regarding a consultation for something else, I have to be on the phone, so my days are really long and granted I am going to school,” she said.

Groves-Jackson is currently finishing up her degree programme in Accounts and Finance at the Northern Caribbean University and plans to pursue a master’s in Finance this coming August at the Leicester University in the United Kingdom. She explained that she will be doing her courses online since she doesn’t want to be away from her family.

Family is a big thing for the entrepreneur and so she and her husband work on shifts to ensure that their children are never neglected because of their busy schedules. Her son was recently acknowledged as the top boy at his primary school based on the recently released GSAT results and will be attending Campion College come September.

“We always try every month at least to have a family weekend somewhere outside of Kingston when no work is taking place, just to chill and have fun,” she said.

Groves-Jackson and her siblings were raised by both parents in Mount Salem, St James, and while her mother, a dressmaker, and her father, a taxi driver did not have much, she had a sound upbringing and was often taught that education was the key to success.

“We definitely were not rich; we were managing well enough. Yes I got to go to college and stuff because I had parents who worked very hard,” she said.

The entrepreneur said she was often called a miser while growing up because of her ability to stretch her small finances to achieve the impossible. When she saw the need for a daycare centre in the resort town where parents could leave their small ones while they soak up the sun, she created Water Whirl. The daycare facility was located on the beach and had an amusement park setting. Unfortunately, when she had to go away for an extended period to Canada, she was forced to close it.

Given all that she has been able to accomplish, Groves-Jackson’s husband Jason describes her as a phenomenal woman and a great mother, especially, he said, since she has taken on the task of marrying him, “which is a whole other job”.

“Just being able to want to do something else, recognising the need to change especially when everything else around you is changing is great,” he said

Groves-Jackson hopes to throw all her efforts into Nuptials in the coming months, even as she tries to navigate her son through the next phase of his life. Having accomplished so much, she is a firm believer that nothing is too hard to do.

“Persons will say it is a lot and I can’t do it, but you can if you put your mind to it and if you really and truly prioritise things,” she asserted.