Growth & Jobs | Expert pushes digital entrepreneurship for MSMEs

At the Jamaica Business Development Corporation’s (JBDC) Virtual Biz Zone Webinar on July 9, digital marketing specialist Monique McIntosh urged micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to rethink their approach to business by embracing digital entrepreneurship as an innovative sales strategy. “There is a whole category of business that in many cases, I believe as Jamaican entrepreneurs and Jamaicans, is still largely untapped. And I’m talking about the world of digital entrepreneurship.”

Digital entrepreneurship is the focus of leveraging technology to build, manage, grow and innovate online businesses that fully embrace the digital landscape.

At the session dubbed ‘Open 24/7: Developing the Online Sales Strategy’, McIntosh encouraged MSMEs to challenge conventional methods in delivering products and services and embrace digital technologies. “It’s really about questioning the ways we deliver our products and services to our customers, because we are using a very standard and traditional approach to business.

“This (digital entrepreneurship) is not going to be everybody’s path, but I thought it important because so many times when we are establishing our businesses or positioning our brands, we are thinking of business operations as how they have always traditionally worked. Because of the Internet, because of social media platforms across countries, because of apps, and now because of AI, so many things have changed about how it is that we engage and interact with brands.”

Her call to action comes amid the Ministry of Industry, Investment and commerce’s and JBDC’s push to enable MSMEs to digitalise, digitise and digitally transform, which is the agency’s role in the European Union-funded Digital Jamaica Project. The project aims to equip businesses with the digital tools and skills necessary to thrive in today’s economy. A recent study conducted by the JBDC revealed that a moderate 32.44 per cent of respondents use digital technologies daily and understand their benefits well, indicating a practical familiarity.

The training component of the Digital Jamaica Project spans two years and is set to begin during this fiscal year.

“I am encouraging us (entrepreneurs), even as we are delving into the world of sales strategies and being able to provide our customers access to our business, products and services 24/7, I want you to push the envelope a little bit to reimagine how we do business … sometimes the very structure and approach that we may be taking is limiting our income-generating capacity or ability,” she noted.

The JBDC is an agency of the Ministry of Industry, Investment and commerce.