In 2010, Alicia Solomon felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to start a business, but she was just too hesitant to launch out. She was nervous about pricing the services she would be offering—editing, proofreading, and research assistance. She even got the name from the Lord.
Since she was a child, Alicia would always be highlighting grammatical mistakes and, if she was allowed, to correct them.
She recalls teaching in Grade One and always correcting people in her head. Whether she was listening to a sermon or the teacher talking, she ‘corrected’ everyone.
So when the Lord gave her the idea for an editing business in 2010, it fell into what she had a natural instinct for.
However, launching out was not as easy for her as she explained, “I didn’t know how to properly set a cost, and even if I did, I thought no one would want to hire me. I was also afraid they would say, This is too much money, and the arguments went on in my head,” she reminisced with a laugh.
Six years later, she finally got the courage to advertise Edit It Business Solutions. Friends and acquaintances had always asked her to assist them in writing letters or doing their research for homework.
It was then that it was cemented in her thoughts that she could actually make a go of it.
In 2016, she started the business but yielded little result as she could not bring herself to put a proper price on what she was offering.
“I started the business, but I really did not charge people. I said anything you can give me. So, I think I really started charging in 2020,” she said.
Still having issues with pricing, she asked the Lord to help her, and each time the clients had no issue with the price.
Edit It Business Solutions focuses on proofreading, editing, creating documents, research up to the masters level, and proofreading and editing up to the doctoral level.
In addition to her editing services, Alicia is also an Independent Business Owner (IBO) for Amway, under the company name The Solomon Sanctuary, where she distributes plant-based solutions for home, personal, and beauty care, as well as nutrition.
In 2022, Edit It Business Solutions started taking off so much so that she recalled a story regarding one of her clients, whom she was assisting with a master’s paper while on a hospital bed!
“I was having my last baby, and I was in the hospital before the surgery, doing up the paper. Right after the surgery, I was whisked back into the room. I almost died in the operating room,” she informed. Even with all that, she was able to complete the paper, and she credits God for giving her supernatural wisdom to do the work “because I cannot do the work in and of myself,” she noted.
With her close relationship with the Lord, Alicia said she involves Him in everything, including pricing. She said God guides her about the situation with each client in terms of big discounts or the right price.
“For a particular customer, the Lord revealed to me that they are having certain challenges; so, He gave me a payment plan for them,” she explained.
Her businesses are also avenues where she can minister as Alicia pointed out, “Every client is usually going through some degree of hardship, not necessarily financial, but in their lives.”
She shared that she has always prayed about her clients and their work, adding that the Lord may give her a word of knowledge for them and to pray with them also.
“So, I always say to people that my business is not just a normal business. It’s a ministry moment for me,” she noted.
Regarding her Amway business, she revealed the idea to do something different started while s
he was in the hospital.
While there, she prayed to God, telling Him she loved the people at her work but just did not feel it was her calling or that it was her purpose.
She was released from the hospital in August 2022, and the following month she recalled being on LinkedIn (a social media site for business-minded persons). She said someone reached out to her using all the keywords she used in her prayer to the Lord—mentorship, growth.
“So, I attended the meetings, and I loved the vibe of the people and their genuineness, not the crab-in-a-barrel syndrome like I’m used to,” she shared concerning her foray into the Amway business.
And that too is a ministry for her, as she informed that she blesses the products before she even orders, and blesses them when they arrive for the Lord to effect the potency. Maintaining her Christian values is a top priority for Alicia, and for her, the one thing she doesn’t want or think she will ever do is to put down her values as a Christian for business.
A few weeks ago she was in prayer, and she said the Lord gave her a book to write—‘Business and the Bible’—and that she said was borne from being an Amway IBO.
“It has helped my evangelism because being an IBO is so similar to the Christian world. So, that’s what the Lord wanted me to highlight in the book that I will write shortly,” she revealed.
As a wife, mother, businesswoman, and someone who volunteers, Alicia tries to balance her time to ensure that none of the different areas of her life suffer. Laughingly, she said there is “no balance” and that something always suffers, but she tries not to let any area suffer for too long.
“Because the Lord has called me to all these things, He provides a way of managing. Managing doesn’t mean it’s perfect,” she stated, adding that she finds a way to make it work somehow.
She cautioned that being a new entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart as finances are not as predictable as working a nine to five.
However, Alicia is convinced that being a Christian business owner is a gift, which enables her to love people and help them to be better versions of themselves. She is grateful that the Lord always points out people to her, and thankfully, there are those who, through “word of mouth,” have been sending people her way.
Born and raised in Franklyn Town, Alicia is a past student of Wolmer’s High School for Girls and the University of Technology Jamaica. She is passionate about God and living for Him, serving people, especially the poor, the fatherless, the widow, and strangers in the land. Alicia is a member of Freedom Come Ministries in Portmore.
“I’m passionate about Jamaica, making Jamaica a real place to live and raise families. And I believe, I strongly believe that this is a generation for wealth creation and not wealth only in money, wealth in righteousness, wealth in holiness. This is the season, and God is creating a crop of people to do His will,” she asserted.
