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Fin24 user Kerry Corden tells how The Market is helping empower women and support small businesses. She writes:
IT all started with Balela, an online crafters community run by my husband and I. We are both passionate about supporting local, small businesses who supply goods that are handmade or handcrafted in South Africa.
Balela was born in 2012, but we had to put the venture on hold when we fell pregnant with triplets. We already have a daughter, who was 4 years old at the time.
With the triplets being a year old now, the time has come to make Balela and all its “tenants” shine.
We believe firmly that small businesses provide a platform for wider employment and economic opportunity at the local level. With no set-up or monthly hosting fees Balela provides a safe, secure and affordable way for small businesses to market themselves.
Setting up shop is easy peasy - crafters are able to set-up their own Balela shop, customise it to look pretty, load their products, sell them online, get paid directly by their customers, and Balela then invoices them a 6.5% commission all on paid orders at the end of each month (this 6.5% is added onto their price so essentially they lose nothing at the end of the day).
Plus each shop gets their very own website address, which they can use for marketing their shop. We have have also happily assisted brand new small businesses with free logos and banners to lift up their brands.
Balela and its current shops are marketed through social platforms, email flyers, printed flyers and by word of mouth. We strive to drive traffic to our “tenants” site in order to increase sales and help them grow.
How The Market came about...
We had been meeting with a few potential “sellers” for Balela, one of which was Debbie Fendick from Guru Girl (made in SA) and the other was Debbie Hannibal from Cook Culinary Studio. We started chatting about how we could get our community together to support each other, meet new people and use their services.
All our sellers make handcrafted or homemade, South African goods. We just feel that it’s not easy for small businesses to get themselves out there, so if we bring them all together under one umbrella we can help them to grow their businesses.
We are all very passionate about our country and our fellow South Africans and since we believe that you cannot buy happiness, but you can buy local, we started pouring our energy into The Market.
The Market's founders - us, Guru Girl and Cook Culinary Studio - all share the urge to support small businesses and promoting handmade South African crafts and food.
Since all our “sellers” make handcrafted goods, it made sense to get everyone under one umbrella.
Our first Market Day - at the Eagle Canyon Golf Estate, Blueberry Street, Honeydew Johannesburg - will be held on September 1 2013 and what an outstanding response! We thought we would only start off with about 6 to 8 tables. We now already have 24 tables.
Balela, Guru Girl and Cook Culinary Studio are each sponsoring an entrepreneur from an underprivileged background. We will give them a free table at our first Market Day.
We will also assist them by marketing their products on The Market’s Facebook page. They will also get the opportunity to open a free online shop on the Balela website and not pay the 6.5% commission. There is also a R500 cash prize for the best sponsored table.
You can find out more about The Market on our Facebook page.
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