The sun never sets in the empire that is Denyse Carew. One day she has her foot in politics and the next she is seeking to build the Amazon.com of the Caribbean with her new business initiative. Carew made an unsuccessful attempt for the deputy chairmanship of the United National Congress, however, she still has the yearning which made her gravitate towards politics, which is helping the alienated, grass-roots people of her community.
She has formed a woman's entrepreneurial group to assist in creating a knowledge base for persons who want to start small businesses and develop the local cottage industries. Carew intends to spread this model to different communities and implement a strong e-commerce element. So far, the group only has 15 members, but Carew is looking at raising approximately $250,000 to offset the project.
"At the end of this project, there should be functioning businesses. We are looking at things like recycling paper bottles and glass, we were looking at baking and the overall value-added product," said Carew. Carew indicated that the vision of this women's entrepreneurial group is tied to a local Web site which she created called modernequator.com, where she showcases Caribbean-made products.
The site carries merchandise with a unique design flare and especially geared towards creating demand for the niche markets of the arts sector. "The Web site is a common market space for people doing beautiful stuff in the Caribbean and I am starting with T&T. I launched the site in December, selling gift baskets of gourmet food. The site's name is Modern Equator.
"I wanted to create relationships with suppliers and part of the developmental side is to sell locally-produced products online." Modern Equator is currently receiving major traffic online and Pay-pal will soon be activated for buyers to make purchases online.
It is a project that would work with people, helping them to develop many aspects of their products. "I have been involved in the creative sectors for a long time and this is an opportunity for me to create an interactive site that is very much like eBay and Amazon.com.
"Essentially the site would feature work that is high-end and one of a kind. Currently, there are ten suppliers on the Web site and is growing daily." Information about the products and suppliers can be sourced at the Web site modernequator.com