Forty-five entrepreneurs from North West with small businesses in jewellery and crafts, carpentry, tourism and agri-processing markets have recently finished a skills training workshop that aimed at assisting them to sell their products on the international market.

The workshop, organised by the Small Enterprise Development Agency (seda) and seda Platinum Incubator, the platinum beneficiation centre in North West, started by assessing the readiness of each company to export its products.

In the course of the two-day workshop, the firms were evaluated on their business models and growth, services and products, production processes, demand, product promotion and their potential to explore international markets. Together these show the interventions required to ready the identified SMMEs for market. This is followed by an export plan and participation in the export market.