AMMESHA SAMUELS: A true self-starter

FOR Ammesha Samuels there never seems to be enough hours in a day to get things done . She spends every waking moment juggling life’s responsibilities all with the aim to improve herself and others .

“My thing is, I love to work, and I feel it is necessary to give back to my country. So if it means working with the civil service or working with an organisation, I am not going to be happy, not helping,” she said.

Samuels is a credit analyst and marketing officer at the Self Start Fund, which is an agency of the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce. But, in addition to this vocation, she also owns her own public relations and events planning firm, is the current vicepresident of the St Andrew

Rotaract Club, and serves as vicepresident for the Jamaican chapter of the National Association of Jamaican and Supportive Organisation (NAJASO). The 26-year-old, free-spirited Samuels started employment with the Self Start Fund about a year ago with her primary responsibility being to assess projects that came to the agency, looking at their viability for loans. But pretty soon her love for marketing came to the fore and she was then given the responsibility to assist in this area as well. She is currently assisting the fund with its public relations campaign and rebranding efforts, while networking and providing valuable information to the public.

The young entrepreneur found that marketing and event planning came naturally to her, although she had pursued her undergraduate studies in international relations at the University of the West Indies. While doing her internship at Saints International, she was given even more exposure in this area.

“It was a lot of work. I had no prior knowledge of the modelling industry and planning and events,” she said.

Since that internship, however, she has worked with other event-planning agencies and, in 2009, decided to start her own talent agency, which she currently manages with a pool of industry experts.

Still in search of the right fit for her personality, Samuels went on to start Haute Consultants in 2012, which specialises in public and media relations, image and brand consultancy, promotions, grant writing, casting management, as well as events and wedding planning. Through this business, she has worked with organisations such as the Jamaica Agricultural Society and the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office.

“I tell myself that if I am sleeping, then clearly I am missing out on a lot of opportunities, so I’m always up, trying to grab at the next thing to do,” she said.

But Samuels believes in being healthy, too, and so she rarely passes up an opportunity to go hiking or engage in physical fitness. In fact, she is a part of a fitness boot camp and enjoys a good workout.

“I like hiking, even though every time I do, I say I’m not going to do it again. The thought of exploring is kind of thrilling and exciting too. I like to travel my country, it makes no sense I don’t know Jamaica and I live here, so I am always finding somewhere new to go,” she told All Woman.

Samuels also likes engaging in charity projects and gets to do a lot of that as the vice-president of the St Andrew Rotaract Club.

“I think we made a lot of significant impact in our community,” she said of the club, which has organised several blood drives and spearheaded projects at the Glenhope Children’s Home.

She also gets time to socialise and give back through the Jamaica Association of Young Professionals, for which she has previously served as director. The group is not as active as before, but as a result of her work with this group over the years, she was drafted for NAJASO.

“Information coming from here, I would pass on to them and we would discuss methods of improving our core group,” she explained.

Samuels is currently pursuing a postgraduate diploma in business administration at the Mona School of Business and Management, which she hopes will equip her to be an even better entrepreneur, although she is learning a lot of valuable lessons through her post at the Self Start Fund.

“Even though I love doing my own business, I love doing this work. It is fulfilling because it is assisting entrepreneurs, you know, persons who need the funding, and I have a whole heap of knowledge in wanting to get money to start up something,” she said.