Written by Faith Antol , PISBDCN Network Program Associate

Didi ’ s Store is owned and operated by Wellington Johnny , a native to Alinglaplap . Wellington is the second oldest son and a father of two young men . Aside from owning and operating his store , Wellington is also a classroom teacher at one of the outer island ’ s school where he also served as a school principal .

Wellington decided to start his business , ultimately , to support and assist his mom and dad , as well as his siblings . He saw in his island a scarce of exported items such as rice and flour and decided to solve that issue by opening up Didi ’ s Store . In an interview with the RMI SBDC Director and Business Advisor , Kathleen Candle-Jikit , Wellington said , “ As we all know , in the outer islands there are not enough stores to accommodate especially the needs and wants of the people in Alinglaplap Atoll . Nowadays , people in the outer islands are always demanding rice , flours , sugar , canned meats and other exported items . I know if I start-up a new retail store it will help those people in the Jeh , Ailinglaplap and it will get more revenue . People can come and exchange their copra and handicraft for foods and cash .”

Wellington sought help in understanding the business industry to get this plan moving forward , and he did .

“ I would say that the Small Business Development Center has really helped me in accomplishing my goals . It really helped me in fulfilling my dreams , too . It gave me an opportunity to expand my knowledge in the business industry because I have never written my own business plan before . With the help of their very dependable and caring staff , I got my chance to do so and to learn from it . The SBDC office is always there whenever I needed help not by doing it for me but letting me do it on my own to get my own experience . All we knew at first was to apply for a small business loan , but I didn ’ t know that I needed a business plan in order to proceed with the next step . I was starting to give up but once I had gained the right information and where exactly to go , I was good to go . I learned from myself . By asking the right questions and knowing where to go to find the right answers . I also see their advertisements and I would always read and update myself whenever something new comes up . I would like to thank the SBDC staff here on Majuro for all their hard work and their motivation because if it weren ’ t for them , I wouldn ’ t have gone this far with my business .

The start-up process was not very difficult because my friends told me about the process before . First ,

I came the SBDC office to seek assistant about the business plan and they told me about the process . They were always ready for whatever questions we had , and it did not take long for us to get our small business loan approved because they were helping us every step of the way . I got fund from Marshall Islands Development Bank .”

Wellington mentioned his short-term plan is to sell food and expand to household items for 3 years . His long-term plans are to build a new warehouse for copra and buy one diesel truck to help copra maker to transport their copra . He is also looking into opening a transport service .

“ I would recommend for people who wants to start their own business would be to seek help and look for the SBDC office because based on my experience , I know it ’ s worth it . Thank you SBDC for all your help !” -Wellington Johnny

Business Name : DIDI ’ S STORE Owner ( s ): WELLINGTON JOHNNY Type of Business : RETAIL Location : JEH , AILINGLAPLAP Hours of Operation : 6am to 10pm Contact information : PH : ( 692 ) 455-5566