A persevering entrepreneur, Devinya Jayasinghe, Founder of Ceylon Hampers (Pvt) Ltd & Director of Chaarya resort and spa, is vying with passion to break barriers and mark her presence among established entrepreneurs and women leaders.
Love, care and guidance had been the epitome of the Devinya’s growth into the individual she is today. Heralding from Lyceum International School, she was always guided towards excellence by her parents and grandparents. She pursued a Joint Hons Degree in Business and Administration from the University of Northampton later going further by following a Masters in Hospitality in Dubai. “I was guided towards being a confident and independent woman along with believing in myself all throughout,” stated Devinya. Parallelly working for one of the top chain of hotels in Dubai, Devinya pursued her education along the way. Unfortunately, the path that she had paved to herself in Dubai came to a standstill with the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic. Back in the motherland, she was in a journey of finding her passion and found it in Ceylon Hampers which she initiated as a hobby which turned out a venture that she is passionate about, “While I was here, I was really looking for my passion with starting up many ventures, until I found my passion in Ceylon Hampers which I started as a hobby and now a venture I’m very passionate about.”
As the founder Ceylon Hampers (Pvt) Ltd & Director of Chaarya Resort and spa, Devinya has values that are at the core of her being that shapes her career towards excellence. Passion is one of the core values that drives Devinya, “The first value would be passion, if you are not passionate about what you do or achieve business or life won’t be a success, always follow your passion and heart not what others tell you to do.” Another valuable skill that makes a difference is financial management, which Devinya states is needed by anyone to make decisions with a responsibility towards their finances. “Every person is responsible of their finances, it’s something that you fail and succeed at in managing. But as a woman I have learnt to be financially independent which is a very important characteristic for women in general, this factor will continue to empower and grow you to be successful,” states Devinya. Ceylon Hampers also focuses on providing opportunity for small, medium scaled and home-made companies a chance to create meaningful and lucrative business relationships. “Ceylon hampers has a very important value which is to involve small medium enterprises that are female owned, we mostly used home-made, female owned enterprises as our suppliers to encourage female entrepreneurship,” stated Devinya. Work life balance as a working woman is a challenge when managing their personal wellbeing and relationships with loved ones come into play, which is something that even Devinya is experiencing and learning.
As a prominent female leader, she started many ventures after her schooling era which ended up being challenges to her from starting out ventures of her own. “I’ve tried many ventures but with my varying focus it was too big of a challenge for me as I was in my search for my real passion, there were certain ups and downs in business but I continued to look for my passion and keep my head up,” she said. Glass ceilings are turning out to be relics of the past, the corporate world is progressively gaining new women workforce. Devinya reminisces the guidance and support she received from her family to overcome these hurdles in her path, “Entering the corporate world and understanding how it works was a massive challenge for me, but with the correct guidance and motivation from my mentors and loved ones I overcame those challenges.” She is currently focused and driven by determination on assisting the family business in hospitality.
Challenges are bound to arise in the path towards success, although some women have to face challenges long before stepping foot in to the corporate world, “There have been a few who disagreed with my ideas about entering the business world as a woman.” Overcoming this, took a dose of determination and support from her family that came from a business background.
On a parting note, Devinya had some words of wisdom she wanted to share with future generation, “Follow your passion, heart and dream and be the woman of your dreams.”