start ups by Andre Burnett
Worth Ave. Concierge’s Sandy Hamilton
“I
s this a good time for an interview?” I ask after factoring in the slight delay in the call’s connection. There is a pause and I check the screen of my smartphone to make sure the connection is still active before Mrs. Sandy Hamilton voice travels some 500 miles, rather pleasantly. “It is, I was expecting your call”, says the CEO of WorthAve Concierge, “how are you?” We exchange pleasantries, with me trying to ask questions a half second before the confident voice on the other end stops speaking to account for the lapses. It’s tiring but it’s easy to see why Sandy, as she asks to be called, is good at what she does. She doesn’t miss a beat as she explains what WorthAve Concierge is all about. Sandy explains that the Florida based company with a recently opened Caribbean hub in Montego Bay is a personal concierge firm that exists to help individuals take care of day to day tasks
Sandy Hamilton
that they are unable (or unwilling) to perform. “Its natural to me”, Sandy insists, “I was always the person people call to get things done, my passion is helping people and the more challenging it is the better it is”. I interrupt unintentionally when the Haitian born, Jamaican by marriage, mother of two says that she loves getting up at 4am to arrange a red eye flight for a distraught client. “It’s stressful, yeah”, she says laughing, “I think it’s more about the satisfaction when the job is finished than anything else”.
I try to say “That was incredibly serendipitous” when Sandy relates how she got her first client but it comes out sounding like static so I defer to the lot less journalistic sounding, “wow”. “I was in a bookstore trying to research my idea of something like a concierge service when a guy walked up to me and asked what it was I did”, says Sandy, “I told him and he turned out to be a really influential person in Miami so he became my first client.” Sandy admits that her company which depends on persons with a more than a little disposable income has had its challenges because of the economic slowdown
but her approach to the job has made her invaluable to individuals or even firms who use WorthAve to broker deals. “My clients understand that I see them as people, says Sandy, “I grew up around a fair bit of money so I think I show clients that I’m not after their money, I’m trying to get my own”. She asks, “Did that come off wrong?” I laugh, “No I understand exactly what you’re saying”. I ask her what her main challenge in moving to Jamaica would advertisment
be and she says, “It’s just about the different culture, but I think there are some similarities between Jamaica and Haiti so I think we’ll acclimatize very quickly.” I thank her for the quick interview and she says something that’s lost to the radio waves but she emails me shortly after with some additional information. Efficient indeed.
yourmoney ezine
special
HP Jamaica launches
T
he Hewlett Packard (HP) store was launched on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at its new location, Royale Computers and Accessories. Speaking at the launch were Jack Khemlani, head of Royale Computers and Accessories and Pedro Cheng, HP territory manager of personal systems and group sales specialist for the Caribbean. The HP store represents a major investment by the technology giant that chose Jamaica as one of its 10 selected countries because of the size and promise of the market. Your Money was on hand to provide photos of the even.
yourmoney ezine
special
yourmoney ezine
insights
the
new journalism order
I
n many major cities of countries around the world, newspaper companies are finding it harder and harder to stay in the black and this cause for concern as the writing seems to be on the wall for print media. Somewhere in the future, maybe not as near as the harbingers would indicate, the way of paper will go the way of portable cassette players but that might not be as bad as it sounds. Newspaper companies provide the news for free, they usually just charge us for the paper on which it is printed and collect their profits from the advertising spend, so moving news online should only make their operation more efficient as long as they can hold on to their advertisers. It might seem like I’m making light of the situation and maybe I am but the death of newspapers might not nearly be as transformative as the demise of the other important part of the news…journalism itself. Demise might be a strong term to describe what is happening but it sums up the process that is occurring that has led to the evolution of social media into simply “media” and vice versa. The ease of which information is available to the average internet user has allowed him to publish more easily and on a wider scale while the trained journalists have had to embed themselves deeper into social media to learn more and stay closer to their readers. The very name “social media” implies that it is a very
What has started to happen is that journalists have had to evolve into community managers of content that is already out there rather than the providers of the content. Journalists’ task will be the amplification of the voice of the community rather than to act as the voice
advertisment
participatory medium that traditional media and its newspeople have to be a part of or get toasted by the 15 year old blogger in his basement rapidly compiling data from a million sources, unverified or not. Journalism has always been a collaborative effort between the journalist and his source. Social media has now afforded the source the ability to become the reporter because of the ease of broadcasting that news. The witness to a news event need not call the local television station because he has already posted the video that he recorded with his mobile phone to Facebook along with a summary of what happened. Lois Lane would have a task of a time trying to get the scoop with her trusty notepad in this day and age.
of the community itself. Journalism has always been a competitive field and now that the competition has opened up the barriers to let in all and sundry, the best collaborator will be the best competitor.
yourmoney ezine
$3&%*54 16#-*4)&3
F;JOFT -JNJUFE 4VJUF 5FDIOPMPHZ *OOPWBUJPO $FOUFS 6OJWFSTJUZ PG 5FDIOPMPHZ 0ME )PQF 3PBE ,JOHTUPO 5FMFQIPOF ."/"(*/( %*3&$503
5ZSPOF 8JMTPO
.0/&:
:063 .0/&: 3&1035&34
"OESF #VSOFUU %&4*(/ "/% -":065
8BSSFO #VDLMF
XXX ZPVSNPOFZF[JOF DPN
46#4$3*15*0/
TVCTDSJQUJPO!ZPVSNPOFZF[JOF DPN
4FOE VT ZPVS DPNNFOUT UP FEJUPS!ZPVSNPOFZF[JOF DPN
&%*503*"-
FEJUPS!ZPVSNPOFZF[JOF DPN :PVS .POFZ F;JOF JT B QSPEVDU PG F;JOFT -JNJUFE BOE JT EJTUSJCVUFE WJB F NBJM BOE PUIFS POMJOF TPVSDFT TVDI BT GBDFCPPL 5P TVCTDSJCF '3&& MPH PO UP XXX ZPVSNPOFZF[JOF DPN UPEBZ PS FNBJM UP TVCTDSJQUJPO! TVCTDSJQUJPO!ZPVSNPOFZF[JOF DPN
&BDI UJNF ZPV SFBE :PVS .POFZ F;JOF ZPV BSF TVQQPSUJOH UIF mHIU BHBJOTU HMPCBM XBSNJOH BOE BMTP B NPWF UPXBSET FDP GSJFOEMZ QSPEVDUT
Read Your Money today...
© 2010 eZines Limited. All Rights Reserved