Late in 2014, 34-year-old Kwame La Fleur quit his job as a driver/salesman with Ansa McAl. He had decided to take the plunge into the business of his own. In a general sense he had become attracted to the idea of being ‘his own man,’ so to speak, though, at the time, he did not have the faintest idea as to exactly what sector he would choose. “I just wanted to be independent,” he said.
As a student at Kingston Community High School, La Fleur had done some masonry classes. It was as close as he came to possessing a skill of his own.
Thus was born Heavenly Home Building Blocks. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the initial support came from his parents and grandparents. Heavenly Homes’ first business location was at La Fleur’s grandmother’s Sophia residence. The state of the Sophia roads, however, seriously inhibited customer access. Accordingly, he readily embraced the option of production space at his father’s 209 Meadow Brook Gardens residence.
Newness in a highly competitive trade coupled with the squeeze on spending attributed to the imminent 2015 elections meant the business was ‘slow’ during the first six months of operations. The absence of liquidity inevitably led to a search for financing to keep the enterprise going. On the recommendation of his stepmother he approached the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED). Using his motor vehicle as collateral he secured a loan of $400,000. The loan allowed for the purchase of wheelbarrows, assorted steel moulds for moulding the blocks and a consignment of sand and cement. With the responsibility for repayment of a loan hanging over his head, La Fleur was now about to take a real plunge into business.