That wedding planner or bride will
also order wedding programs, cake
boxes and so on. The financial pay-
off from the wedding-related
business model was greater than the
less sustainable personalised greeting
card model
Shifting the business model meant
that more orders were coming in
and I needed to dedicate more time
to business growth. Jheanell was
very supportive. I went to her
workplace one day during lunch
time and told her that I had just left
my job and this was really going to
happen. She was a bit anxious but
was, and continues to be, my source
of strength.
There are big opportunities in the
wedding industry. Statistics show
that the number of weddings are
declining year-on-year, but the
quality of weddings is increasing.
People are spending more on
weddings and the desire to have a
unique wedding is big. Therefore,
there are several opportunities for
Stewy’s Greetings to expand into
other areas of the wedding industry.
Here is my advice to anyone who is
considering leaving their 9 to 5 to
pursue entrepreneurship full-time:
1 Have proof of concept before
jumping into a business. Do more
than identifying needs and getting
people to say, “yes”. Start your
business, prove that you have sales
and then decide whether the
business is at a place where you
need to leave your job. It would
then just be a matter of scaling to
get more sales.
2 Have a plan. Why are you quitting?
What are you going to do when you
quit? If you’re just quitting without
any real strategy in mind, you won’t
be able to scale the business.
Issue �: January ����
What marketing
strategies would you
suggest to someone who
wants to start a business
in Jamaica?
The global trend is that more
people
are
spending
time
online.Therefore, you should learn
and master strategies in social media
marketing. Learn the art of paid
advertising. Learn how to target people
using social media platforms. Facebook
marketing has helped Stewy’s Greetings a
lot. Paid advertisements can cost far less
when compared with traditional
advertisements. You
budget before
pouring thousands of dollars into a
campaign. I would say that social media
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