An agency of the Ministry of Industry, Investment & Commerce, the JBDC is Jamaica’s premier business development organisation working collaboratively with government, private sector, as well as, academic, research and international communities.

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Kingston, Jamaica – At the Jamaica Business Development Corporation’s (JBDC) Virtual Biz Zone Webinar on Tuesday, July 9, Digital Marketing Specialist, Monique McIntosh urged Micro, Small & 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 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 & 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 (EU) 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% 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 & services 24/7, I want you to push the envelope a little bit to reimagine how we do business…sometimes the very structure & 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 & Commerce (MIIC).

Author

Corporate Communications