Local female-identifying businesses are showcasing their work this holiday season.
Run The World (RTW) is an entrepreneurial event series by three minority women aiming to inspire and help ambitious women build the business careers of their dreams.
Amongst many of their initiatives is the female-founded Holiday Market at the Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga, running from Nov. 24 until Christmas Eve!
This market promotes and showcases 12 new small business owners every week. The event features vendors selling silk products, jewelry, perfumes, custom olives, cookies, and luxury chocolates.
Chief brand officer Amanee Nasserdine said in an email to Her Campus at Toronto MU that RTW supports their core belief of providing spaces for female-owned or co-owned businesses to grow.
“Based on Canadian statistics, women-led businesses create more jobs than male-led businesses,” Nasserdine said. “As the Canadian economy looks to stimulate more jobs and increase the small business footprint, why wouldn’t one want to support a local, female-owned business in their own backyard?”
In fact, vendors from the Holiday Market themselves decided to support the other businesses present. Alina Vasyliychuk, owner of M&A Beauty Products, explained that she believes people should support locally. She engages in that initiative, as she understands the difficulties of being a small-business owner.
“I think it’s important to support the local vendors because it’s really hard to get through and compete with the big companies,” Vasyliychuk said.
Entrepreneurs take a considerable risk when it comes to opening a business. Tiffany Turchyn, owner of Unsalted Honey, mentioned that if they fail, they are likely to reach credit card debt and find themselves in a worse situation than before. She shared her day-to-day experience at the Holiday Market.
She gets up around 7 a.m., packs her lunch, and drives 20 minutes to Square One. She sets up a different look for her booth every morning and gets ready to connect with new customers.
She says the Holiday Market is nice to give “small businesses the opportunity, especially as women, to showcase our work and art and to be able to do this for a week.”
With various vendors ranging in a selection of goods, there’s definitely something there for you. Take social media pictures with RTW Holiday’s Market Instafamous photo-ops and support local female-owned businesses this holiday season!