Mother, Shairoen O’Niel and son, Suraj O’Niel have partnered up to establish a childminding family business called Shaipa Professionals in their home country, Suriname. Shairoen is the director of a thriving childminder organisation with 12 years of experience in education and 4 in childcare. As a true entrepreneur, having gained extensive experience in childminding, Shairoen is now ready and determined to take on her own business with a plan B and C already in mind. Her son, Suraj O’Neil is currently working in the IT sector and decided to jump on board to make his parents dream business come true. Suraj has had experience running a supermarket as well as assisting family members in their existing businesses and start-ups in the past. Just like his mother, Suraj is motivated to breathe Shaipa Professionals into life and establish their family business in Suriname.
Both Shairoen and Suraj took part in SPARK’s Migrant Entrepreneurship Programme and benefitted from the business training provided. Shairoen explained that she learned a lot from the training and gained more insight into the financial aspect of a start-up as well as what makes a good solid business plan. Her own work experience has also prepared her immensely for becoming a business owner of her own childminding company. One of the main things Suraj took away from the training was realising how much fun entrepreneurship can be! He also learned that being flexible and open minded is necessary when establishing a business as you must be able to adapt to the reality of your surroundings. Currently the O’Neil’s are still perfecting their business plan and getting their start capital together. They have also already entered into the phase of securing customers and finding a location for Shaipa Professionals. Suraj expressed that the biggest challenge so far while writing their business plan was the lack of knowledge they had of the Surinamese market and business environment there. The next step for the O’Neil’s and the realisation of Shaipa Professionals is conducting an extensive market research in Suriname.
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What is your personal ambition?
Our personal ambition is to fulfil our feeling of social responsibility to help develop and build up our home country, Suriname, by providing childminding services for working people. We also strive to develop as entrepreneurs and to ultimately be our own boss.
What impact do you see your business making?
Our business will help contribute to the overall economic development and growth of our home country. Shaipa Professionals will impact the social evolution and progression of Suriname by providing childminding services with better homecare, quality education and most importantly childcare that prioritises showing love and individual attention for each child to flourish. We also hope to set an example of professionalism by providing services with highly trained personnel.
How do you see the future of your business?
We are very realistic when it comes to the future of Shaipa Professionals. We plan to start off as a small business and once we are well established and running smoothly, we will expand, employ a full staff and continue to contribute to the development of our country the best we can.
