The New Year started quite wonderful for entrepreneur Sandy (Sananthra) Martina. Just before Christmas she digitally sent in her business plan and application to microfinance foundation Qredits. A few weeks later, the second week of the New Year to be exact, her company Blenchi Marketing and Design was granted a loan. Now, she could expand her business and buy the high-tech printer she needed to do so.
Entrepreneurial bloodMarketing and design is in her blood. When she was fifteen years old, Sandy Martina made her first business card on her families’ first computer. A friend of her mother’s was about to start a new business and needed cards. Teenager Sandy saw an opportunity and offered to help. She already loved designing things. Thus she plunged into the design world and taught herself the ins and outs of all the designing programs she could find at that time. Within a week or two she proudly presented her design to her mother’s friend. It was a big success and gradually more and more people started to ask her mother if her daughter would be willing to design their cards as well. Within no-time the young entrepreneur did not only design business cards but also flyers, T-shirts with or without positive minded quotes, notepaper and whatever else people desired. She had found her calling and entrepreneurship was running through her veins.
The making of an entrepreneur
Before jumping into the world of adult entrepreneurs, she had to finish her school and study and broaden her horizon. After she finished bookkeeping in Holland she continued with a further study Business Technology and ICT. In the meanwhile she met another entrepreneur who was starting up a design and webhosting company. They joined forces and Sananthra helped him to set up shop. It was a very interesting period in which the budding entrepreneur learned everything there was to know about dealing with clients and customers and could professionalize her designing skills and knowledge as well. “A whole world opened up for me”, she adds. “ICT technology fast-forwarded and the possibilities were endless.” After a few years it was time to spread her wings and in 2008 Blenchi Marketing and Design was born. She had the knowhow and a firm basis. Her marketing company hosted websites, designed business cards, logos, notepaper, gave businesses a new corporate identity, and offered online marketing including ads and the administration of websites. Her business flourished. But home was knocking on her door as well and she wanted to be closer to her family. In 2012 she went back to Curacao, where she was born and raised. And of course she took her business with her.
“I was so terribly nervous that weekend after the meeting”
Looking for opportunities and ways to help the islands and their inhabitants grow and develop Sananthra decided to join her mother, who had left Curacao for a job in Bonaire. Because she wanted to get to know the community, its ways, and culture first, she started to work for an ICT-department in Bonaire. Together with some friends she cofounded the Foundation Mas Eventz in 2015, which is particularly known for its annual fully booked Mas Color Walk round Bonaire. The success of the foundation and the events she and the other members of the board organized became a breakthrough for her company. It broadened her network, people got to know her and needed her designing skills. She had created momentum to start up her company once more and this time on Bonaire.
Blenchi Marketing and Design Bonaire
The first thing she had to do was to adjust her business plan, which she already made when she started up her own company in Holland. After studying the Bonairean market and talking with lots of people she knew what the community wanted and was ready to restart her business. She transformed her living room into an office, invested in some equipment and new technologies, and opened up shop. It didn’t take long before the demand exceeded her supply and expectations. Still working full time she found someone who was willing to help her on a voluntary basis. But that was not enough. To be able to meet the ever increasing demand, especially with Carnival coming up, she needed to purchase a high-tech printer. And that’s when a friend told her about Qredits. This Dutch non-profit microfinance foundation is operating in the Netherlands since 2009 and expanded their services to Bonaire in 2015. To stimulate Bonaire’s economy (starting) entrepreneurs can apply for a business loan up to USD. 50,000. Moreover in order to help their applicants on their way to success, Qredits offers them support and guidance by teaching them how to write a business plan.
At first Sananthra Martina wasn’t sure. It was a big step and she wanted to think about it and do some research before she decided to apply. Her research and the realization she just had to believe in herself convinced her to take her company to the next level. A few days before Christmas she pressed the submit button on their website and sent in her application and business plan. She didn’t have to wait long. Right after Christmas she received a request for some additional information, replied immediately and in the first week of January Nicole Senchi-Sordjo, Qredits’ business adviser on Bonaire invited her to come to her office.
And although the meeting went well, Sananthra didn’t know if Qredits would grant her the loan or not. “I was so terribly nervous that weekend after the meeting”, she tells laughingly, “that I couldn’t think of anything else and found myself pacing back and forth in my office”. But she really had no reason to worry. Right after the weekend she got the message that her plans were a go. She could buy the high-tech printer which would take Blenchi Marketing and Design to a higher level and would enable her to help and serve the community of Bonaire even better. She couldn’t have been more grateful.