By Caleb Jones
For the Birmingham Times
Building a business from the ground up can be strenuous. The dedication and sacrifice required are hard enough for most people to manage under normal circumstances, but 17-year-old Jaiden Smith is doing it during a pandemic—and doing it well.
The Ramsay High School senior is owner and founder of Quarantine Essentials Shop, an online shopping hub for sanitation products and personal protective equipment (PPE), including hand sanitizer, disinfectant sprays and wipes, and latex gloves.
“I’ve always wanted to have a business,” he said in a recent interview with the Birmingham Times. “I had a whole bunch of ideas … [that] I just wrote down but never actually [pursued]. So, I sat down with my mom, [Shatoya Brown], when the quarantine started [this year in March] and asked her, ‘What’s one thing you wish was easier?’ She was like, ‘I cannot find cleaning products—none.’ That’s where I got the idea, and I just went from there. I even made my own website: [www.quarantineessentialsshop.com].”