Since the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation’s (BEF) $20 Challenge started in 2011, countless individuals have shown entrepreneurial excellence: Liquid Desires and Vera Collections are two of them.
Liquid Desires, founded by friends Tyree Weekes-Haynes, Royston Hoyte and Zachary Moore, is a gourmet food and beverage company specialising in locally manufactured pepper sauces. Vera Collections, founded by cousins Nathan Moore, Christié Anderson and Rhesa Jackman, manufactures aloe vera-based skin care products.
Both winners of the $20 Challenge – Vera Collections won the Community Summer Challenge edition, piloted in 2021; while Liquid Desires was one of the Micro Enterprise 2019 winners.
Royston Hoyte of Liquid Desires said the company was developed due to his team having a vested interest in agriculture and bartending. He stated: “Liquid Desires was created because we wanted to make things we would enjoy.
We were not satisfied with the flavour and the taste of the cocktails that we were getting at the time, so we decided to create a product that would fill that void. We subsequently decided to create pepper sauces with tropical flavours, to them to make them unique for our business.”
Liquid Desires has been able to further develop its business through access to funding, networking opportunities and business development resources, which formed part of the prize package.
Co-founder Weekes-Haynes added: “A lot of opportunities came with the winning package. We had a consultancy session with Work Consultancy Inc., attended sponsored workshops for marketing, got access to food testing and many other services. Winning the Challenge not only allowed us to grow our clientele, but to be a part of a network that fosters entrepreneurial excellence.”
Vera Collections is a family-based business, creating a very different $20 Challenge experience as compared to Liquid Desires. They cited the added pressure of operating a business whilst maintaining healthy family relationships.
Nathan Moore explained how he became involved in the Challenge: “My cousin, Christié Anderson, introduced the idea to Rhea and I, and convinced us to join. The idea for the business started from realising there was an excess amount of aloe vera plants at our grandmother’s home. Christié, having studied the sciences, thought of how she could utilize the plant to develop a skincare line. Together, we formulated Vera Collections which specializes in aloe-based beauty products.
“We started the journey with the Optimists Clubs, $20 Community Summer Challenge. I was amazed at what we learned in eight weeks. We used all the information we gathered in the marketing and social media workshops to build out our business model. We also partnered with Fund Access, who was very helpful providing financing as well as guidance. That made the process easier than I could have ever imagined.”
Being Winners of the 2021 programme came as a shock to them. Through striving to prove the cynics wrong, Nathan, Christié and Rhesa continued to work together to further develop a successful family-owned business.
