YOUNG entrepreneur turns TikTok moment into business breakthrough
WHEN twenty-four-year-old Sabrina Johnson posted a video of herself riding her bicycle and selling her homemade juice, she did not expect both the video and her business to go viral overnight. Since posting the video a little over a month ago, Johnson has garnered thousands of views and hundreds of phone calls from Guyana and beyond. Now she is working to grow the business amid growing demand. In a sit-down with the Pepperpot Magazine this week, Johnson shared her journey, what led her to the now-viral video, how she is dealing with unprecedented demand and how she plans to chart her course forward.
Born in Venezuela to Guyanese parents, Johnson grew up amid a mix of cultures, with both Venezuelan and Guyanese influences shaping her. Financial and situational challenges struck Johnson and her family just a few years ago. With supportive, more stable relatives in Guyana, Johnson and her family soon moved here. “My family is in Guyana. They told us that they moved from Venezuela and came to live in Guyana because here you could come and live and have a life and create a life here.” Johnson described the move as starting over, adding, “We came over, me, my sister, everyone who lived in Venezuela came to Guyana to start a new life. My life started when I was 16, that is when I actually came here. For the past years I was just working. I also play football, just keep doing what I got to do.”
Restarting her life almost meant figuring out, for the first time, what she truly wanted to do. Three years ago, Johnson decided she wanted to start her own venture. As she explained, up until that point, she had worked several jobs, but none felt like she was making a mark or creating something for herself. This drive to have a business of her own is what pushed her to create Sabrina’s Tropical Blend. “It reached a point that I said I just want to do my own thing. I don’t want to keep working all my life,” she added. “I like playing football, but I like making juices. I try my best to put out the best juices out there. I have been getting a lot of good feedback, so I said let me stick to this and do it part-time while I train in football. I said let me just ride and sell.”
Like so many new businesses, especially in the realm of food service, Johnson’s business was growing slowly but surely. A defining moment that would rocket both Johnson and her business came just over a month ago, when a single video of her riding her bicycle through the city to deliver a customer’s juice order went viral. With thousands of views on that single video and millions of people viewing the profile, Sabrina’s Tropical Blend was soon one of the most talked-about businesses in Guyana. Recounting the day she filmed the video, Johnson shared, “I started filming myself riding and selling and I posted it on TikTok and it got really popular. I got over 1,300 orders just from three sets of people at one company,” she added. “Now I am getting help from my sister because she sees the demand. Basically, this is how the business started. I wanted to be more independent.”
Johnson’s unique branding has also garnered attention, with many people drawn to the bold, vibrant presentation. This is something Johnson is uniquely proud of. As she told Pepperpot Magazine, she learned branding and graphic design over six months, an experience she used to craft her brand. “I worked for like two weeks to buy my jerseys and get them printed,” she added. “I learnt for six months how to do logos, labelling and designing. I just watched YouTube videos and learnt until I got good at it. I even did my own labels for the bottles. I started doing the website. I just put in the work.”
Since the business has been gaining traction, Johnson says she is now more confident in both her brand and herself. While she believed in the business’s vision, she shared that she had previously struggled with low self-esteem. “Before everything happened, I really had low self-esteem. I thought I was not so pretty or so nice.” This is why, when she posted the video of herself with no make-up, plying her trade in the sun, and it went viral, Johnson was both surprised and intrigued by the positive response. “When I post a video and everything start going up and people start reading comments saying she is really nice, it started helping me gain confidence to put myself out there with no make-up. Piece by piece I started to like what I was doing.”
One of the things that has appealed to viewers of Johnson’s videos is her work ethic. A glance through the comment section of her videos shows thousands of people praising her hard work, with many highlighting that this is not usually seen publicly among many young women. According to Johnson, the key to this drive has been consistency. As she shared, “Consistency is important. Sometimes you do not want to get out of bed. Sometimes you do not want to keep going. But you got to get up and do the work. If you do not do the work, nobody will do it for you. You got to do it for yourself,” she added.
Today, Sabrina’s Tropical Blend is the producer and retailer of a wide range of juices, shakes and sandwiches. Johnson’s juices, however, are by far her most popular product. Her juices are entirely natural and seasonal, with each time of the year offering different fruits, flavours and even themes. “I work with the fruits available in the market. Right now, plum is in season, you will get plum juice. Whatever is in season you get. I have a premium option of juice which is expensive, and I have the bottled juice which is $500.” While her bottled juices offer a wide range of seasonal flavours, like her pumpkin-flavoured juice in October, her premium option offers made-to-order, on-the-spot juices.
Moving forward, Johnson hopes to see her business continue to reach new heights, with the dream of being internationally known. While she admits it will take plenty of hard work, Johnson is sure her dedication can make it possible. “I want to be known as the best juice girl or the best in the world, if it is possible. If it can reach to Venezuela, the place where I was born, to Colombia, not only to the Caribbean but all over. I know it is a lot of work I need to put in, but I think I can reach there.” And Johnson’s advice to other young entrepreneurs is something she said she learnt only after gaining popularity. “Be yourself. Do what you believe in and do not let what people say stop you. I gave up on Sabrina’s Tropical Blend six times and this was the last strike. I left Wendy’s in January to stick to this and look at where it brought me.”
