A law enforcement officer and youth leader recently launched a business that he hopes will serve as a guiding light for young men in depressed communities and to provide them with a source of income.
Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, Nayman Gill, 25, officially launched professional lawn care service OGN Superb Services on June 6th, 2020. Some of the services offered by the new business includes weeding, pruning, landscaping, drain cleaning, land filling, clearing and even pest control.
In an interview with Stabroek Weekend, Gill revealed that the idea for the business was a vision which came to him while he was home due to COVID-19. “OGN Superb Services was a God-given inspiration. It happened during this same COVID period. While I was at home, I started to think about those who are not being able to get income because of the lockdown…. and even those who haven’t been getting income before the lockdown,” Gill explained.
The young man stated that getting into the landscaping business was not something hard as he worked in the field when he was younger and has the relevant knowledge and experience. “I said ‘What could I start to not only help myself but help others with me, especially young men,” Gill noted, while adding that he saw lots of young men, especially in depressed communities, who are out of work and most lack a positive male role model in their lives.
“I realised that just how a haircut is needed, persons need their environments to keep clean, just not their environment but their lawns, their trees…” he added.
The entrepreneur mentioned that after launching his business, he began offering different packages and expanded to doing land filling and clearing. He noted there are young men out there who know how to do those things and so he just needed to pitch the idea to those young men and get them to come on board. On that note, Gill said that his team consists of an agriculturist, and operators, some of whom are furthering their studies in various fields at tertiary institutions in Guyana. “So I’m trying to see if OGN could be pushed in such a way so that through the business we could be able to actually help our staff and young men to further their studies,” he noted. “It’s not just about coming and working and making money but it’s about helping them build themselves and to know that there is hope and there is still that person who would look out for them… I’m trying to push towards helping them get control of their lives,” he added.
This aspect of the vision for the business, he mentioned, comes from his younger years after growing up without his father and living in the Alexander Village community and not perpetuating the stereotypes that people have about young men in those communities.
He noted that even though he was able to pull himself from falling into those stereotypes, there are still lots of young people who would want to better themselves but do not have the push or motivating factor to get where they would like to be. “I’m trying to show them that nothing is degrading. I have a degree and I go and clean drains when I do get the time. It’s not only that it generates another income it helps you to understand things like service, service to humanity and the community,” he pointed out.
Gill noted that the mentorship or empowerment aspect of the business was inevitable as he has been involved in youth mentorship programmes and activism for quite some time and it comes as second nature.
The young entrepreneur hopes to expand the business by adding more services to the list of services that are already being provided and further creating more jobs. “It’s not about being behind the money but basically showing these young men how to create legal jobs for themselves,” Gill said.
Despite the ongoing global pandemic, Gill says that since launching they have been receiving great reviews from clients so far and even with some constraints like transportation and certain equipment the team will press on and be positive to expand the business..
