GIFT-GIVING can be a personal message or a symbol of an event celebrated with another person. Some persons find joy in giving and some try to customise gifts for the recipient. Kreative Kreations by Stacy has decided to turn can’t into cans and dreams into plans for individuals and companies seeking to give a customisable gift basket and box.

The business was birthed from Stacy-Ann Campbell’s experience in trying to find a specific gift for her best friend’s birthday eight years ago. While e-commerce has revolutionised the way we order products, receiving products from abroad can take time.

“It’s something I’ve always been interested in. I was looking for something specific years ago and couldn’t find it. I didn’t want to go into a store and buy any item; I wanted a series of items that I could put together for my best friend. I wanted something to kind of speak to the years we’ve known each other,” said co-founder and principal Campbell in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.

With the day coming closer, Campbell reminisced on the memories she shared from high school and came up with an idea of what she could whip up. She customised the container and included different colours, had a bottle of sand with a quote on it, and other gifts which spoke to the years the two had known each other.

“I said, ‘Let me just find different items I know she loves and let me put it together.’ To be able to reach persons in that way and not just say, ‘Here is a gift,’ but to really make sure it means something to them [is the intention],” she further exeplained.

It was from this moment the Kreative mind decided to take on this activity of customisable gift baskets and boxes on the side, while carrying out her daily duties at Jamaican Money Market Brokers Limited (JMMB). This resulted in her doing different assortments over the years and using Instagram as a way to build her customised brand.

After many years of doing this activity which brought her joy, Campbell began to consider the prospects of going full-time with her customisable gift business and took the leap of faith into entrepreneurship in the midst of the pandemic in April 2021.

“It’s just really having the business evolve. I was in the corporate world for years and, to be honest, with lots of prayers and a lot of family support I walked away from the corporate world to actually do this full-time. It was a real faith move, but I kind of did [it] on the side for years. Lots of persons, family and friends encouraged me that I could go big into this [business]. It’s really my passion and it’s something I enjoy,” stated Campbell as she reminisced.

Thus, she registered the business, Kreative Kreations by Stacy, on July 19, 2021 and lunged forward with the support of her husband and mother-in-law at the family home in St. Catherine. While many would have considered this extremely risky when Jamaica was experiencing lockdowns and uncertainty, Campbell moved forward.

Thus, her husband leads with operations while her mother-in-law assists with quality assurance. She puts together the final basket design with her husband, with one room retrofitted solely for the business.

Her creative process starts with the message the client wants for internal staff or external customers. So, when someone asked about a house-warming gift for a friend, the Kreative boss thought of sea shells and looked at creating a calm, nautical theme. After visualising the end product, she works with her husband to source the relevant products and then completes the final product. Little things such as scents, colours and other sensory stimuli aren’t too much for the young business.

After nearly a year of work, they have secured five companies who will use the business for any occasion they have in the future. She has also reached out to companies overseas.

The largest project completed to date was the JMMB Group 30th anniversary, which involved sourcing products from China and assisting the team with executing gifts for staff and customers in the region.

“It took a lot in terms of coordination and logistics because we were up for days on end because of the time difference. We were up like 1, 2 or 3 in the morning discussing with the suppliers. There was a lot of back and forth. When we send them the logo, they sent us a sample. We said no, we need it a little brighter,” Campbell shared in describing the experience to Sunday Finance.

With big plans set for 2023 they are currently seeking to hire staff and get additional space, and are planning for further opportunities in the Caribbean. Although it can be taxing to make six gift baskets unique for one company, it works to their benefit and distinguishes them from others.

The move to become an entrepreneur has seen Campbell becoming a full-time business owner, wife, and mom to two children. Her business focus has also been centred around building other local small businesses whose services she can incorporate into her gifts. This has seen her employ a carpenter for the creation of wooden boxes to ensure that every item in the package is reusable.

“That’s another thing that we want to be able to do in the future is to be sort of like an enabler for other small businesses — out of the need for our end product, to be able to hire local small businesses to do things and get the different products,” Campbell closed.

Kreative Kreations by Stacy can be found on Instagram @kreativekbystacy.