UTech student pursuing degree while running online business

First year University of Technology Jamaica student Serena McNeil, 19, is celebrating her all-A's profile this semester after a trying year of balancing her studies alongside her part-time job and running her own business.

McNeil, who started her online furniture company, McNellus Furniture at age 16, says that balancing her endeavours is difficult but her drive to leave her current circumstances keeps her focused.

"I don't come from a rich family. I'd say my family is from the lower class actually, we live in the ghetto. I always knew that I wanted better for myself, so wanting to make my life better and come out of the ghetto prompted me to start," she said.

While preparing for her Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate exams in 2019, McNeil had the idea to legitimise her father Bryan's furniture-making business and create a place for people to get premier custom furniture.

"My dad is a carpenter so he had his own furniture business, so I decided to start mine and he would work for me. So he is the one who builds the furniture but I always work with other carpenters around the area," she said. "I was actually brainstorming of ways to start something because I really wanted to do something that would help me financially, and so the talk of starting the furniture company came to mind and I realised I would have the available resources so it would be easier for me."

In the three years since the inception of McNellus Furniture, McNeil and her father have fulfilled countless custom orders islandwide. Coupled with the need to maintain good grades in school and allot time to her part-time job, McNeil says she constantly battles anxiety and other triggers.

"It's really hard. I've always been a very organised person. I try to plan out my day as much as possible, but that doesn't always work. I definitely struggle with anxiety and when things are not going my way, it just feels like the whole world is crashing down," she told THE WEEKEND STAR.

"Regardless of that, I have goals and I know what I want, so I realise that I have to put in the hard work. So, it's really about dedicating my time."

This semester, McNeil received all A's and a 4.01 GPA in her first semester into a bachelor's degree in communication arts and technology. While McNeil isn't physically labouring over the furniture herself, she says this does not make her job any less difficult.

"He guides me a lot but even though he's my dad, he does not make anything easy for me. I have do everything that I'm responsible for, like contact the driver when it's delivery time and all the other important things that make the business work," she said.

While McNeil is determined to finish her degree, she has big dreams of franchising McNellus Furniture and expanding.

"I plan to stay online but I would like to have a showroom in different parishes because we already deliver islandwide. But it would be good to have different workshops in different parishes along with showrooms and maybe in the future, I can even expand regionally," she said.