– Young entrepreneur answers the call to return home

By Alva Solomon
WHEN beauty company Avon closed its doors in Guyana last year, many persons were left without a diverse range of beauty and care products to choose from. At the same time, the move left in the cold many persons who had traded the products to supplement their incomes . But young Guyanese entrepreneur Robeta Sami had her own alternative plan.
Sami, who is based in Barbados, will this week unveil her ambitious plans to capitalise on the void left by Avon using the CHI Miss Universe, Biosilk and Kardashian product lines. Sami created her own company, Caribbean Premier Distributors (CPD), and she subsequently obtained sole distributor status from the beauty companies last December. Ever since, she has been making numerous calls, travel arrangements and local contacts to develop her business plans.
Going the trip alone, the young woman noted that failure is not an option at this time, as she has come home to make a success of her dream.
She said that she will not simply be having a store selling the popular products, but she will be a distributor of the products and as time stretches, she will work towards distributing other unique and reputable beauty- care products. She said that the product line, especially the CHI Miss Universe branded items is not unique to Guyana’s beauty industry. However, her business of marketing those products is and at affordable costs. “A product which sells for $10,000, you can buy that for $4000,” she noted.
“The Kardasian line is one that is in demand globally, the CHI Miss Universe is the product line of choice selected by the Miss Universe organisation for those persons who take part in the international pageant,” she added.
Sami said that midway through 2015, she started pursuing the idea of distributing beauty- care products. Though based in Barbados, some eight years to date, she said that she worked around the clock marketing the Avon branded products while she worked as a distributor here in Guyana. She operated a local store .
“I had over 100 persons working along with me as representatives and so it is something similar which I hope will come out [of]the new plans,” Sami noted.
She said that over the years in Barbados she had visited several beauty shows and workshops and it is at those events that she struck up conversations with the parent company’s representatives of CHI, the Kardasian brand and Biosilk. “I had been contacted by a company based in Mexico, but my marketing plans were more focused on products that are more reputable”, the young woman noted.
Having established contact with the product lines, she said she quickly returned to Guyana and scoped the business climate here. “Beauty and care are always in demand, so I can tell that there is a market here,” she said. In addition, she had to find a new location for her store and she found that site at the Kaylan’s Mall on Lamaha Street close to Camp Street. There she was packing a range of beauty items from the product lines, when this newspaper visited last week. Persons were already visiting the store and making enquiries as regards being representatives to sell the products. The products include lotions, perfumes, hair- treatment products and men’s beauty -care products.
Sami said that she established contact with a number of local related businesses including the Milady’s House of Beauty in Queenstown. In addition, popular Guyanese fashion icon, Sonia Noel, has embraced the products and Sami’s plans. “Establishing that contact with Sonia is one of the best things that has happened in my plans”, Sami said.
On Monday this week, she will officially launch the product lines at the Georgetown Club, where a workshop will be held to showcase the products and their usage at 5 pm. She said that persons can also make arrangements to be representatives of the product lines.