In the fullness of time, when the Guyanese society as a whole begins to pay greater attention than it does at this time to the energy that goes into women-run small businesses, they are likely to come to a significantly enhanced appreciation of the effort that is invested in first, setting up, and afterwards, sustaining these enterprises.
Remarkably, a significant number of modest, women-run enterprises have their origins in the immediate needs of their creators. These women, frequently, understand little about the orthodoxies of business. It is purely a matter of doing well enough to make a modest living or else, to subsidise an inadequate one.
For Alianne Allysa Glen it has been a matter of bringing equal measures of creativity and energy to the fore to fashion an enterprise that subsidises her private sector job. Alianne’s Creations was created by the mother of three and, its owner says, it has been growing from strength since then. As with so many other women-driven small businesses, much of its focus is on the kitchen. Alianne has seized and ‘run with’ the idea of producing a bewildering array of cookies customised to suit every purpose.
There is no entrepreneurial miracle here. It has been, Alianne says, simply a matter of finding a niche in which there is sufficient customer appeal to “make it pay.” Searching for and finding that niche, however, is often not as easy as it seems. Over time, she has sustained the business by pressing her own ingenuity into service, creating demand by ‘inventing cookies’ for all occasions including, kids birthday parties, seasonal events and in one instance that she related, the tenth anniversary of a bereavement. As with many businesses of this nature, product testing derives from verdicts delivered by family members whose candid criticisms can often be far more reassuring than the patronizing comments of strangers concerned with not giving offence. Accordingly, her Aubrey Barker Road, South Ruimveldt home is frequently a hive of product-testing activity.
Weekends are when much of the ‘action’ takes place. There are usually lots of orders and what can be time-consuming is the creative dimension to the job. The demand for cookies, Alianne says, can extend over a bewildering array of concepts and it takes time to fashion creations that meet the approval of demanding customers. Neighbourhood children wanting to be part of the cookie experience can pick up a few in a small bag for $100.
While Alianne is mindful of further boosting sales she has, she says, become aware of the need to be mindful of the health implications of high sugar consumption. Accordingly, she is in the process of experimenting with the use of artificial sweeteners in her products.
A fair measure of commercial success has provided Alianne with an incentive to push her own creative envelope. These days, she says, she is preoccupied with novel cookie creations, utilising her own ‘inventions’ that include novel ingredients. The former Christ Church Secondary School student who has also studied Cosmetology at the Carnegie School of Home Economics and Industrial Relations and Management at the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education, told Stabroek Business that apart from her plans to market her products more aggressively in the period ahead she is also working towards the acquisition of an industrial oven to help improve the efficiency of her operation.
Her immediate preoccupation is with the market opportunity afforded by the festive season. Determined to continually raise her game she intends, as far as possible to become part of events that would further popularise the service that she offers. Creating cookies, she says, has infused in her a sense of purpose that continues to condition her personal outlook.
