Nahomy Usher Shows Resilience in Business

This week, we’re shining a spotlight on resilience in small business—a quality every entrepreneur understands. It’s the grit and determination to persevere when the odds seem insurmountable. Nahomy Usher embodies this spirit. As a single mother and seasoned entrepreneur with over a decade of experience, she’s faced her share of challenges. When one business failed, she didn’t give up, she created another. We caught up with her at her booth at the Mahogany Street Reserve Project and found this week’s look On the Bright Side.

 

Sabreena

“Maanin Ms. Nahomy, Can I order some breakfast please?”

Nahomy

“Yes babe, what can I get you?”

Sabreena

“I’ll have your grilled sandwich with cheese and ham.”

 

Sabreena Daly, Reporting
I’m here at one of my favorite places to enjoy a delicious Belizean breakfast or lunch.  For many in Lake Independence, it is also their go-to location on Mahogany Street for a quick bite in the morning. It’s called Belize City Tacos, but if you look on the menu, tacos are nowhere in sight.

 

Nahomy Usher, Owner, Belize City Tacos
“My shop is named City Tacos and I think it’s a funny thing when people pass around here because when they come in the morning and ask can I have three dollars tacos or two dollars tacos? And I’m like, no, we don’t have any tacos. This is what we have on the board.”

 

 

 

The confusion comes from the owner, Nahomy Usher, being the face of one of her first business ventures– The “real” Belize City Tacos that was situated on Yarborough Road. Usher is a resilient entrepreneur who began her journey at twenty-two years old when she started selling tacos and other corn-based meals. She also had a small business renting a bouncy house, a feeding program, and even sold cooked beans.

 

Sabreena Daly

“Where did all these ideas come from, from the Bouncy House to cooked beans?”

 

Nahomy Usher

“When my son was three years old I wanted something different for a party and I saw this post on Facebook.  That inspired me to do my own little Bouncy House business. I saved up the money from where I was working and that’s how that became. Then the beans business became because  we Belizean people, well, we Belize city people, we like everything easy. So I said people will want beans already cooked if they get up late. Just purchase a pound of beans that’s already cooked and put it on the stove. It was successful. I still sell beans up to now when people order.”

 

Usher’s enduring spirit has brought her through successful ventures but has also taught her perseverance. When one business failed, she went on to another.

 

Nahomy Usher

“I remember COVID came and then it affected my Bouncy House business. I actually had some new bouncy houses, but because of the lockdown, I couldn’t do it anymore because they started rotting away. So then I decided to open back up a food shop  and the same thing happened with the kids program. Two years of them being at home locked me up and I was there thinking, what can I do? What can I do again? And I started again with the breakfast in a box.”

 

Sabreena

“You get to choose what you would like to place inside the box. This morning, I went with a grilled sandwich. With the morning crowd, and the quality meal, Usher makes it look easy.”

Sabreena Daly

“As an entrepreneur, what would you say has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome in the span of 11 years?”

 

Nahomy Usher

“My biggest challenge has been financial. Financial and then advertising. I had to find my own ways of advertising and my own ways of getting my financial income to come in so that I can be able to have this that I have now.”

 

 

 

Usher started her business at a humble location just a distance from where she is now. She didn’t have much space, only a wish to stay in her community. So, when the opportunity presented itself for her to secure a booth with the Mahogany Street Reserve Project, Usher crossed her fingers.

 

 

 

Nahomy Usher

“I saw the opportunity here at Mahogany. It’s a busy street and I bring something different here from everybody else that has a shop here and people are pleased with it. So when I heard the news that they were going to build small booths for us, the people that were renting shops, it was good news. Until I got that key in my hand, I was like, thank God. You know, it was a relief not paying rent anymore. I was paying 300 to 400 a month. Now I am saving that  . It’s a great help that I got. So, when you believe in yourself, when you remain focused, you go a long way.”

 

Gesmy Bernardez has been working with Nahomy for the past eight months and is also inspired to be in her shoes one day.

 

Gesmy Bernardez , Helper, Belize City Tacos

“We sell breakfast, we sell lunch, and so on. The things that we sell the most is the stuffed Jacks in the morning, the waffle, the pancake wrap, we have wraps also, and grilled sandwich, and bagels and croissants. It’s good to be independent.  And then to work for yourself, especially since we have a lot of single mothers out here., We try out here for our kids. We try different things. Sometimes when you work for other people, it doesn’t really work out, so it’s good to try things for yourself.”

 

Nahomy Usher

“You know, once you put God in everything that you do in a business, in your life,  he will be the one to guide you. He is the one that told me not to give up. He has something for me. We can only see from a certain point of view, but he’s seen everything that he has for me in life, and he was the one that helped me where I am today apart from my customers.”

 

Looking on The Bright Side, I’m Sabreena Daly.