If walking and selling is what it takes to reach her goal, Keiana Ward is prepared to do it

Mar 05, 2023 News

By Vanessa Braithwaite–Moore

Kaieteur News – To start from scratch as an entrepreneur, takes courage and stamina. Sometimes you have to go beyond the ordinary and think outside of the box to achieve your goal. For young Linden entrepreneur, Keiana Ward is going beyond the ordinary means by walking and selling plantain chips, ice-cream and other items to achieve her goal of owning a dynamic enterprise, which will have a multiplicity of businesses. The 27-year-old who hails from Wismar, is leaving no stone unturned and is aggressively pursuing all legal and moral avenues to achieve her target of completing her facility and equipping it before the end of 2023.

Keiana Ward

Ward who holds many pageant titles and has recently ventured into public speaking and graphics designing, is on a mission to own a community computer centre and printery, which will meet the current demand for same, especially for students. Bringing this venture to fruition is no easy task for Ward and while to others it may seem as a herculean mission to take on single handedly, she is prepared to show naysayers that the only stumbling block between achieving one’s dream is a negative and lazy mindset. “I am not afraid of circumstances or challenges; you know why? Because I see circumstances and challenges as an opportunity to grow,” she affirmed.

Recently she started walking and selling plantain chips in communities across Linden to raise money to complete her project and has also kept ice cream sales. “I started my plantain chip business and the response is so great, I also kept my first ice cream sale and already I was able to purchase a laptop. My schedule is very tight but I keep my goal in mind that my business has to be launched in 2023 and I would brave the sun with that goal in mind and sell my plantain chips. I have no pride when it comes to achieving my goal,” she said.

With such a great demand now for her scrumptious plantain chips paired with a mouthwatering sour, Ward said she has already employed someone to assist with the task of peeling and is proud that her little ‘hustle’ is putting bread into another youth’s mouth. When she started the plantain chip venture, she sold in clear plastic bags, but today her packaging has improved tremendously and she is now making strides to put labels on it as well as to supply local supermarkets. “When I started this venture, I just wanted to raise money to complete my building and to purchase equipment for it, but now I am eying a whole new enterprise-dynamic plantain chips. I’m now in talks with persons to improve my packaging and marketing,” she related.

Once completed Dynamic enterprise will be offering a wide variety of services, ranging from graphics design, browsing, research, printing services, public relations and brand ambassador services, modeling, coaching services amongst others. In addition to her business ventures, Ward also works at a fish shop, does private tutoring and is a member of the toastmaster club amongst other things. “My schedule is very tight but I know that this hard work won’t last forever when my enterprise is up and running, Rome wasn’t built in a day and so I am willing to go the extra mile.”

Ward’s advice to other youths who want to pursue entrepreneurship is to take pride out of their eyes. The answer does not always lie in securing a grant or a loan or waiting for sponsorship but making the impossible possible through hard work and determination.”Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” She said her plantain chip business started with a capital of less than $10,000 and now she sells over 40 packs per day.