Take Your Caribbean Small Business Seriously | Shauna Marshall, Founder, SMB Consulting Services

MSME Development Specialist Shauna Marshall wants Caribbean small business owners to take their businesses seriously. She shared this on the Island Woman podcast with Dianne N Squires, noting the massive contribution these businesses make to Caribbean economies. Her “Business & Bites” event, initiated in Barbados four years ago to celebrate MSME Day, has now grown into a full-fledged MSME ecosystem, which she plans to take region-wide. --------------------------Shauna Marshall of SMB Consulting Services has become our first repeat guest on the podcast. Her no-nonsense business advice on a season 2 episode, “From Solopreneur to Enterprise”, made it one of the most watched and listened to episodes of that season. This time around, we had the chance to talk about how an event she conceptualised four years ago to celebrate MSME Day has not only a major sponsored event for the community but has transformed into an ecosystem where MSME players can connect, learn and get support. It now has the backing of major financial services company Payce Digital, which will open credit opportunities and payment systems learning to MSMEs in the Business and Bites network. Shauna has huge ambitions for her business and the Business and Bites platform, and of course we talked about how that matches up to her state of wellbeing - she’s working on that last part. Timestamps00:00 Introduction to Shauna Marshall03:41 Ambition and Daily Rituals06:39 The Importance of Visibility09:40 Creating Change Through Voice13:07 Structural Challenges for MSMEs18:13 Building Business and Bytes Ecosystem23:03 Ambition and Well-Being: A Balancing Act25:52 The Importance of Systems for Growth29:01 MSMEs: The Backbone of Economic Growth32:11 Taking Yourself Seriously as a Business Owner36:00 The Power of Voice and VisibilityConnect with Island Woman Follow the podcast, get direct access to upcoming masterclass updates, and secure private invitations for the Rooted and Ready 90-day program or the Island Woman Authority Suite by following our WhatsApp channel.📲 https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb7lcdnEFeXrxlKuY31L or email: [email protected] with Dianne N SquiresLinkedIn: @Dianne N Squires linkedin.com/in/dianne-n-squires-a2389132Email: [email protected] with Shauna Marshall and SMB Consulting Services Websites: https://smbconsultingservices.com/https://businessandbites.org/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shauna-marshall/Instagram: @consultingsmb - https://www.instagram.com/consultingsmb/Facebook.com: ----------------------Dianne N. Squires is a Strategic Communications leader, Founder of Dianne N Squires Consulting (DNSC), and host of the Island Woman Podcast. Her work centres on elevating voice, visibility and impact for Caribbean changemakers.--------------------The Island Woman podcast has been recognised by Feedspot as one of the Top 30 Island Podcasts on the web. Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.Check out the list here: https://podcast.feedspot.com/island_podcasts/?feed_id=8701532&_src=f2_featured_email#h8701532#IslandWomanPodcast #Caribbeanpodcast #MSMEdevelopment #strategy #businessecosystem #Caribbeanwomanfounder #ambitionandwellbeing‐------------