Growth & Jobs | Made in Manchester Expo building economic fabric of Jamaica
Published:Tuesday | April 23, 2024 | 12:08 AMKeisha Hill/Senior Gleaner Writer
The Made in Manchester Expo was designed to assist micro and small businesswomen in the parish to raise their visibility, build brand recognition and grow their businesses. The more than 40 female business owners at the event’s ninth staging, held recently, exhibited much more than products and services ... they displayed their resilience and creativity.
Annette Salmon, chief executive officer and principal consultant, 20 Twenty Strategies Consulting, and founder and coordinator of Made in Manchester Expo, said the event has been one of the biggest networking platforms for the women, who are able to connect with customers and potential investors.
“The expo provides a platform to showcase and raise the visibility of women’s businesses in the parish of Manchester. The process of getting ready for the expo helps participants in revisiting how their products or services are packaged, create or refine their marketing materials, and think of creative ways to present on the day,” Salmon said.
Women from several industries were hosted on the grounds of Scotiabank, Mandeville. They showcased their unique artistry in cake baking and decorating, beauty and wellness, alternative medicine, fashion, décor, healthy treats, legal, shipping, pest control, virtual assistance, and education.
“We have come to appreciate that the Made in Manchester Expo has been a catalyst for quite a number of start-ups. So many can attest to the fact that the expo was their very first public showing of their business,” Salmon said.
“Being part of the expo helps to boost their confidence, test their business concepts, conduct research by getting real-time feedback from their target audience, which in turn gets fed into a revamped product, service or label. This year we had 12 start-up vendors who were given the opportunity to launch, courtesy of National Baking Limited and Knutsford Express,” she added.
According to Salmon, over the years they have had the opportunity of working closely with female entrepreneurs through various government projects and organisations. Female entrepreneurs, she said, are more open to mentorship, coaching and community marketing.
“Maybe it is because they are really the backbone of our economy; and if you invest in building capacity in a female business it has a domino effect on an entire community, hence why Made in Manchester is seen as a community marketing project,” she said.
Salmon wants to take Made in Manchester to another level because of the huge potential of capitalising and getting more women to work together, not only to showcase themselves to the rest of Manchester, but to provide support, barter, make arrangements to lift ourselves higher as a group.
Salmon added that the biggest success of the event is seeing women having greater exposure, appealing to and striking deals with exporters and manufacturers who will mass-produce to supply market demand.
“We believe that the only way to build the economic fabric of Jamaica is to deepen the capacity-building efforts of communities. Made in Manchester is all about creating stronger micro and small businesses, so they in turn will create stronger communities; stronger communities will create stronger towns and stronger parishes. Building from the grassroots up is one of the best ways to #BuildJamaica,” Salmon said.
“We need corporate to understand that supporting efforts like this will make a difference to their bottom-line eventually, not immediately. Thanks to companies like Knutsford Express that has been supporting us for the past six years, and National Baking Company Limited that joined us for the first time; they both made the event possible from a monetary standpoint. It takes a village!” she concluded.