Small-business IDP women entrepreneurs enhance their marketing and sales skills
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Through an initiative between UN Women and the Georgian Farmers’ Association, a group of start-up and small-business entrepreneurs recently attended trainings to acquire sales and marketing skills.
The 68 participants, including 33 women from the regions of Imereti and Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, are beneficiaries of the project “Equal Access of IDPs to Economic Opportunities in Georgia”. This project was implemented in 2016 and 2017 with the support of UN Women and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and funded by the EU. Within the framework of this initiative, FAO delivered a technical training to the beneficiaries, and UN Women built their skills in the areas of sales and marketing.
The training focused on the basics of marketing, product packaging and other necessary support components for marketing, branding and sales. “To succeed, it is very important that an entrepreneur packages her goods effectively and thinks about alternative sources of sales,” noted Tornike Guruli, an invited trainer. “Case studies and interactive exercises have enabled the participants to make future plans and think about expanding their businesses.”
The participants will employ their newly acquired skills to develop strategic plans, expand their sales networks and enhance promotion. Neli Khetsuriani, a training participant engaged in entrepreneurial activities in Imereti, highlighted this fact: “I am a teacher by profession and I knew almost nothing in this field. I realized during the training that the acquired skills will help me to ensure proper packaging and will play an important role in my activities.”
It is noteworthy that the public relations master’s students of Ilia State University, future professionals of this field - will continue supporting the projects of interested small-business entrepreneurs and offer them individual coaching.