By Andrea Hendricks
WITH a desire to make trendy tech accessories accessible in Guyana, Kayla Dover started her business, Creative Cases GY, to create and sell stylish mobile add-ons for local consumers.
At 19, the founder of Creative Cases GY is building a business around custom, charm-packed designs while juggling school, work, and big plans for expansion.
Kayla Dover wanted one thing: for Guyanese customers to have easier access to the kind of trendy tech accessories she kept seeing online. That simple gap in the market sparked Creative Cases GY, the microbusiness she started to create and sell stylish mobile add-ons, from heavily decorated “junk” cases to an expanding range of everyday accessories.
In a recent interview with Pepperpot Magazine, the teen entrepreneur explained that her early focus was on clear cases transformed into bold statement pieces, layered with charms, rhinestones, beads and glitter. The look caught on. Since then, she has widened her offerings, stocking items such as lanyards and charger cases alongside her custom designs.
“…I realised that we don’t have access to those things over here,” Dover said, describing the moment she decided to try sourcing charms and testing the concept locally. She added that encouragement at home helped push the idea forward. “I was also encouraged by my partner and decided to source some charms, try it out and see how it would go.”
Dover’s week is split between selling and designing customised phone cases. These items are supplied at SILUM Smartphone Store and Repairs, located in the ACME building, where customers can find her products. To keep pace with demand, she said she often works on two or three cases at the same time as new requests come in. When no orders are waiting, she takes time to reset, sometimes with a walk.
Part of Creative Cases GY’s appeal is the craft behind the finished product. Dover shared the steps she uses to build a “junk” case, describing it as similar to the process of doing acrylic nails. Her materials include a phone case, charms, a file, resin and rubbing alcohol.
The work starts with preparation: she buffs a silicone case with a file to help the decorations adhere properly. Next comes cleaning: rubbing alcohol is applied to the cover, then resin, which serves as the base that holds the charms in place. The final stage is where the personality comes through. Dover arranges charms, glitter and other details to match each customer’s request. She said a single case can take about three hours to complete in one sitting.
Growth brought pressure. Dover said one of the toughest parts of the early days was trying to balance her academics, work life and the demands of operating a business. With little time to herself, sleep became the first sacrifice. Her nights, she recalled, were packed with two-hour classes, assignments, studying and long hours spent creating cases.
She later resigned from her job, a change that made day-to-day life “smoother in every aspect”, giving her more time to focus on herself and Creative Cases GY. Academically, she also shifted direction: she moved away from studying to become a medical laboratory assistant and intends to apply to the University of Guyana to study medical rehabilitation and become a physiotherapist.
For Dover, the most rewarding part of the business is the customer’s reaction at the end. “I love the reaction when somebody sees the final product of their case,” she said in an interview. “I love seeing how happy they are once they uplift their case.”
She credits a close circle for helping her build momentum. Dover said her mother, sisters and partner are among her biggest supporters. Her partner, she explained, gave her the confidence to start, helped with finances for supplies and encouraged her through difficult periods. Her mother and sister, meanwhile, promote the business by telling friends and reposting advertisements on social media.
Looking ahead, Dover said she wants to expand Creative Cases GY and has several ideas in mind, including AirPods cases, screen protectors, power banks, phone grips and other tech accessories. “I want to grow Creative Cases GY into a trusted tech accessories brand,” she said, adding that her vision is to offer “a wide range of stylish, high-quality phone accessories and stuff of that nature.”
Her advice to young people considering a small business is practical: be patient, build a strong support system and have a strategy because, without one, she warned, “it will fail.” She also urged new entrepreneurs to be disciplined with their earnings. Rather than spending profits on personal items, she recommended putting a simple system in place: pay yourself a portion, then reinvest the rest to restock and keep selling.
What remains constant, she said, is the hands-on nature of her work. Each case is still built with the careful layering and detail that first drew attention, creating pieces that feel personal, playful and unmistakably handmade, even as the brand begins to look beyond its original “junk” designs to a wider catalogue of tech accessories.
As she maps out the next stage, Dover is focused on doing it deliberately: sourcing new products, strengthening consistency and keeping customer trust at the centre of every rollout. Friends and family may have helped provide the push to begin, but it is her own discipline, managing time, reinvesting earnings and sticking to a plan, that she believes will determine how far Creative Cases GY can go.
For young people watching from the sidelines, her message is the same one she applies to herself: start with what you have, stay patient, and build something that can last. And if Creative Cases GY is any sign, a small idea, worked on late at night, charm by charm, can become a brand with room to grow.
