Name: Javette Nixon
Age: 32
Name of business: Point Global Marketing Limited
Your job title: Founder & CEO
Age at which you started your business: 27
What do you think is the most important character trait in a successful entrepreneur?
I think the most important trait of a successful entrepreneur is the ability to remain focused and motivated when others may have given up. In order to build a business, you have to clear many challenges. Your focus and motivation is tested almost daily. And the ability to lift yourself up every day and move forward is extremely important for success.
Identify one hardship that you experienced while building your business and how you overcame that.
I don’t know if this would be called a hardship. However, it’s one of the most challenging things I have encountered in growing Point Global. It’s the challenge of recruiting teammates who have the same passion for working with emerging businesses as I do. Having the right staff is extremely important to building a sustainable business. I was very frustrated in the early years about attracting teammates with skills and competence that would help to build the business. It took me a while to get to a realization that even more important than qualification, teammates with the right attitude and motivation for being part of the team were the best ones for the journey.
Describe one moment in which you felt immense pride in your accomplishment as entrepreneur.
Point Global is a marketing firm, so our aim is also to work on challenging and cutting edge projects that achieve our clients’ business goals. As such, my moments of pride always are when I see our work making a difference in the client’s business. I am happiest and most full of pride when I see a St. Mary’s Banana chip billboard that we have designed, and when I receive news that CWJCU is need one of the best Credit Union using Facebook. Those moment are the ones when our work at Point Global Marketing proves most effective. That’s what gives me pride.
How important were family/connections/relationships to your work’s success?
My family is a tremendous part of my business story. I started Point Global because I felt that small businesses like my mother’s business could benefit from great marketing and I didn’t see a marketing firm that was set up to meet their needs as emerging and small businesses. As such, my mother is why I started Point. I would have also given up along time ago if it wasn’t the support of my wife and the encouragement of my sister and friends. My first client at Point was from a friend referring his mother to me, and many of our clients over the years have come from friends and family members talking to their business contacts about the work that we have done and continue to do for our clients.
What advice would you give to youth considering starting entrepreneurial ventures in Jamaica?
I would encourage them to really be focused on solving a problem that they are passionate about solving. I would also encourage them to never give up on what they are passionate about, and to immerse themselves in their business, their industry.
For the picture: Why did you choose this pic and what does it say about you?
I chose this picture because one of the things I do on a daily basis is talk to emerging businesses about improving the way they operate, and in particularly refining their marketing strategies. This picture captures me doing precisely that at Digital Housing 2015.
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