Managing a small business well as a woman and mother: Ruby Wood

Ruby Wood, née Small, the executive director and president of the Brooklyn-based Square Deal Shippers, Inc., says that managing a small business well as a woman and mother, and having a family, have its many challenges.

But, Wood, the mother of three adult children and grandmother of four boys, told Caribbean Life: “You must be able to excel between personal responsibilities and professional demands.”

She said she migrated from St. Vincent and the Grenadines to Brooklyn in 1975 to join her late husband, Egerton “Creech” Wood.

Six years later, Wood said she and her husband, with just a shoestring budget, established Square Deal Shipper & Movers, Inc. with the goal of offering “first class shipping services to the Caribbean and the rest of the world.”

Regrettably, she said her husband died in 2012, and that she made the decision to “continue building the legacy we started.”

“History has often shown us that men ruled, and women supported,” said Wood, one of seven brothers and sisters born to the late Virginia Maule and Cyril Small of Mt. Pleasant, a small village lodged between Stubbs and Argyle on the eastern coast of mainland St. Vincent.

“Women are now holding their own in senior professional and political positions,” she added. “I was intent to show the world I was a force to be reckoned with.

“Undertaking my role as the woman of a small business, I was fearless, confident and highly motivated,” Wood continued. “I worked tirelessly, driving trucks, moving cargo, doing clerical work and (doing) whatever it took to ensure that my shipments reached their destinations on time.”

Wood – who was educated at the Stubbs and Calder Primary School; St. Joseph’s Convent Secondary School in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn; and Adelphi University in Garden City, Nassau County, Long Island – attributed the success of her business to her “patience and forbearance” with her customers.

“I treat all with respect, and go the extra mile to make them feel appreciated and satisfied with the service,” she said. “I am proud to build a brand that provides employment and job security to those in my community.

“Several employees have become successful professionals – a doctor, a teacher; some have even opened their own shipping companies,” added Wood, stating that her life is evidence that “a candle loses nothing if it is used to light another.”

Over the years, she said “benevolence has been the hallmark of Square Deal Shippers, Inc.

“We have focused our efforts on giving back to the community-based organizations in the Diaspora,” she added. “Charitable gifts and shipping services have been extended to health, education, sports, cultural and church organizations in the tri-state area, my homeland St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and to other Caribbean islands.”

Wood is the recipient of many awards, recognitions and citations, including proclamations from New York City Council; Humanitarian Award from the Brooklyn-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines Diaspora Committee of New York, Inc.; and Caribbean Life Impact Award.

“I could not have achieved all this without the help of my children, staff and kindhearted customers from the Diaspora,” said Wood about her business success. “I owe them a debt of gratitude and sincere thanks for their support and patronage over the years.

“I will be forever grateful, and I want to wish all the mother’s a Happy Mother’s Day,” she added.