Sherman Brooks put together a bed spring at his workshop on Harbour Street in Kingston yesterday. Brooks told The Gleaner that he has been in the business for more than 12 years. - photos by Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

Marvin, Sherman, Bredda and the other bedmakers along Luke Lane were beside themselves with happiness yesterday as they tried to absorb Prime Minister Bruce Golding's announcement that it will soon be easier for operators of small businesses to access financing.

This is great news to this group of bedmakers in downtown Kingston.

The bedmakers are the first stop for many persons who lose their beds in fires and floods, but a shortage of cash has restricted their business and affected their earning potential.

Looking for open doors

Now they are hoping that the prime minister's announcement will open doors that are closed for the bedmakers, who have spent years at the corner of Luke Lane and Harbour Street.

"When we go to look loans, them a talk like we have to have a million dollars and that no make sense. If me did have a million dollar me wouldn't need a loan. We are all ghetto youths and we want help with the business," Bredda told The Gleaner.

"I think if I go in and say I'm doing a little business and looking a loan, I think they should look into my needs and come look at where me doing business and give me the money to try something," he added.

Essential support

A group of bedmakers on Harbour Street.

For many, making beds is a skill they learnt on the job and it is a business that has helped them to support their families for years.

But with the global recession and the move by many stores in downtown Kingston to start selling beds, they have seen a decline in their sales in recent months.

"We use to sell all six and eight beds on a Saturday, now we only selling one or two and more time nuh bed nuh sell," Marvin said.

But that has not caused them to despair; instead, they are looking at ways to streamline their business and move into the official arena.

"Sometimes the police them come and seize we goods and we have to pay money to the KSAC (Kingston and St Andrew Corporation) to get them back. What we want is one of the old buildings downtown where we could set up shop and even hire some youths and teach them the trade.

"We are all ghetto youths but we decide seh wi not going into crime, we want to try a thing and show some other youths that them can do something for themselves and the police still pressure we," Sherman added.

"We make all size bed and when people come and we give them a price and them say them have less we give them, worse, if them say them lose them bed in a fire or flood," the bedmakers said.

For them, it is slow and the financial reward is small, but it offers a source of income they are not about to reject and, more important, making beds keeps them out of trouble.