How Does a Home-Based Craft Business Showcase its Products on International Markets?
One answer is through a private sector-driven trade support network, an example of which is found in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Businesswoman Barbara Mowat has set up a process that has given over 5,000 small businesses the chance to launch their gifts and household items on the international market. Peter Hulm interviewed Mrs Mowat about her experience of building up a network of small home-based businesses.
Interview by Peter Hulm
Several years ago, the Canadian province of British Columbia (B.C.) took the unusual step of supporting a private sector effort to enable home-based gifts and handicraft businesses to present themselves to potential global buyers at a special wholesale traders’ show. The idea was the innovative contribution of Barbara Mowat from Abbotsford, B.C. For 15 years she taught human relations before setting up what became a family business with her two daughters and son. She called the company Impact Communications, and apart from specializing in management training and consulting, it also publishes Home Business Report — a magazine that links up workers from home. As Mrs Mowat put it, “Transfer the skills you have accumulated to something you really want to do.”
The result of her efforts was the first Uniquely B.C. Creative Arts Show in 1989, which was an overwhelming success. Mrs Mowat worked in association with Canada’s largest wholesale gift-show producer, and their efforts led to similar events in other major Canadian cities. Since then there have been 47 shows, giving over 5,000 small businesses the chance to launch their gifts and household items on the international market. Perhaps the most original idea behind the Uniquely Shows was to bring in a panel of merchandising specialists from major retailers and companies in the target area to give candid and informed assessments of what the products needed in order to become “exportable” from their local home.
Mrs Mowat’s efforts won her the 1993 Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Impact on the Economy. Her company now puts together the Uniquely Canada Show. In 1998, she and one of her daughters opened a gift shop in the small resort village of Sun Peaks, B.C. The venture led to the idea of an online retail store to get Uniquely Canada products out to the world. More>>
SOURCE: International Trade Forum
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