We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shaundrice Foster. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shaundrice below.

Shaundrice, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

In getting started with this venture I always knew that I had a passion for personal care products , using my late dad’s research of the herb guinea hen weed was a way to keep his memory alive in my business. So when I started I thought the initial mission was to just preserve his memory and advocacy. That was further expanded on when I was interviewed on smile Jamaica, the national local television for my business where I soon realized the deeper mission was to end the cycle of poverty and build a sustainable foundation for my life so that I can impact others, specifically women. The mission of preserving my fathers memory is significant to me because inherently I am reassuring myself that I am still fighting to survive and thrive in life even though he is not with me and his body of work still lives on. The mission of ending the cycle is important for me to adhere to as I came from humble beginnings from a single parent household to living my grandmother. During such times I was faced with severe financial limitations but by trusting in God and my faith several doors were opened along my academic journey and business, Today all my achievements and personal success stands as an inspiration to many and my business has since been used as a platform to motivate and inspire other women with my business and personal journey.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

So a bit about me is that I’m 25 years old , I am an only child for my dad where I was raised in a single parent household in Kingston Jamaica in the earlier part of my childhood , I was then sent to live with my grandparents in my pre-teen years . These primitive years was very crucial to my development as that was were most of my grit and energy came from that I now use in life to be resilient as I came from humble beginnings I learnt very early to lead my life with passion and drive in order to survive through school. I did business subjects in high school were I later graduated with an Associate Degree In Entrepreneurship.
My passion and pull towards entrepreneurship started from as far back as 2014, where in high school I was introduced to an entrepreneurship club called junior achievement , there they opened my mind to the idea of creating a system for yourself rather than being apart of one and they showed us how to do it. I also joined a network marketing company in 2015 called world wide dream builders where the inspiration became embedded and I learnt about the different class of persons through a 4 way quadrant the employee, the self employed , the business and the investor. That’s when I discovered that there are different types of systems that exist and you can be in multiple sections at a time and also you don’t have to be apart of the rat race that dictates that you have work till you die , that another route is entrepreneurship where you create wealth for yourself and leave a lasting legacy.

Through college I kept in the business field and graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Marketing and Business Studies specific to Entrepreneurship from 2016-2019 , it wasn’t until my final year in University that my business idea took root.
I had entered my idea in an entrepreneurship competition and won seed funding for the idea in 2020, it was in that same competition that I was recommended to a natural scientist who was able to take my idea from in my head to actual prototypes. Prior to that competition I had won a seed funding from some investors in 2017 for the business, at the time the business was called ALL Nat and that seed funding was used in creating the prototype for the competition were the business won Most Ready to Invest and emerged the overall winner.

Having no background in the sciences more than at the high school level I started out private labelling from the scientist until I had to move on to use a chemist for a more personalized formula development in 2021. Since then I have just been self taught in making and producing all the products.

Since that time the business have had notable successes being a 3 time pitch award winning business, sold to and impact over 200 satisfied women in the last 3 years and is on a positive growth trajectory.

We have since entered several accelerator programs including the 2022 cohort for the US Embassy’s Academy for Women Entrepreneurs and the 2023 July cohort for the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship Caribbean

Today the G-Weed Cosmetics is a reflection of my personal passion and love for cosmetic products merged with my late father’s research of the herb guinea hen weed to birth a natural herbal personal care brand offering herbal cosmetic solutions in the local market here in Jamaica and online to overseas through our website. We cater to persons on there self -care journey to wellness where we use guineahenweed as a base for our hair and skincare products which makes us distinguished in the marketplace.
Our product line include our Multi-Oil Hair Serum, Our Whipped Shea Butter and Our Guineahenweed Soap

Admits numerous setbacks , I am most proud of the level of resilience I have had in myself and this business as well as the level of personal growth I have had as the CEO . I have had to take risks, be strategic, make difficult sacrifices and decisions that have come to reap many rewards and notable interest from high level organizations. Also the level of consistency has increased where brand awareness is growing weekly.

I want persons to know that this business was birthed from a simple and idea and passion to see it through as well as the faith in God that it would be possible and indeed there is true testament of why you must start first and figure things out along the way. You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I have had several stories on the testament of resilience while going through this entrepreneurial journey. The first was 2017 where in my second year of college my dad passed, that was the self-same year I had won my first seed funding for my business at the time it was called All Nat. While this was a tough time at school I have managed to finish college and continued the business with his memory and research in mind.

Another notable moment of resilience was last year 2022, the social media page I had for the business page got deleted over night and all the followers we had accumulated over the 3 years prior was gone . I had to start over to build back a new page and today that page have doubled the numbers we had on our last page in just over 1 year.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I have quite notable had to learn and I’m still learning several life lessons:

A) Life is not linear – on the journey of business there is no perfect sequences of success that brings results you just have to have the courage to try and think about the outcome you want to bring about.
B) Life happens in the greys – There is often a saying that life is black and white , but often times while the principles for business are usually rigid in theory, when it plays out in reality its a lot more fluid than what’s written and you have to make decisions and take actions to adjust accordingly.
C) Life requires adjusting from old norms of that of an employee who expects a salary, to an employer who creates opportunities. Having been on both sides of the fences I constantly have to switch on Boss mode , and switch Back to employee mode when working for an income and so I’m constantly learning to find that balance along with being content with the loneliness that building a business brings.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gweedcosmetics.com
• Instagram: ghw_cosmetics
• Facebook: G-Weed Cosmetics
• Linkedin: Shaundrice Foster
• Twitter: Shaundrice