Shanice Prince, a 2022 alumna of Trinidad and Tobago’s first cohort of Academy of Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), founded Tom Tom’s Local Confectioner in 2016 with a recipe for chocolate fudge, shared with her by a family friend.
Prince got the idea to start a business from one of her sons, known by his nickname ‘Tom Tom.’
“Whenever I would make my chocolate fudge or coconut fudge and deliver it to local grocery stores,” says Prince, “my son Tom Tom was there. He always wanted a taste. One day he said, ‘Mommy, you should sell this and become a millionaire.’”
So Prince started a fudge business in his name, saying it is a way to leave a legacy for her children later. “When your business is part of your children’s inheritance, you know you cannot fail,” says Prince.
Six years later, Tom Tom’s has made a name for itself in local shops in Tobago’s capital Scarborough, with its delicious fudge and indigenous sweets made from fruits, nuts, and “benne seeds” - a local name for sesame seeds.
Tom Tom’s signature sweets are gaining a foothold among Tobago’s tourists.
These types of local sweets are a popular souvenir for tourists to remember their time in tropical Tobago, and in 2020 Prince began thinking about how to capitalize on the tourism market. When COVID hit, tourism slumped – but she never lost sight of her goal to expand her business.
Prince got a boost in 2022 through the U.S. government’s Academy for Women Entrepreneurs, which helped her to reposition her product for the tourism industry at a time when visitors started coming back to the Caribbean in force.
“AWE was a beautiful experience,” says Prince. “It pushed me to think beyond where my business was, to where my business could be – and reach people where they are.”
She explained how AWE’s different lecturers and U.S. exchange alumni mentors taught her about product positioning and targeted marketing. Since Prince wanted to reach tourists, they encouraged her to pursue product placement beyond just local grocers, and approach hotels and airlines.
As a result of AWE, Prince's customer base grew from local consumers to businesses affiliated with the tourism sector, attracting hotels and restaurants eager to collaborate and promote her products.
“Tom Tom’s started getting a lot of exposure, a lot of orders – for things like weddings, or orders from families living abroad coming home to Tobago. It was so much we had to bring on two new employees,” says Prince.
Tom Tom’s also caught the eye of Tobago’s Trade Minister who tasted the sweet delights at a pop-up trade fair in the capital – which led to an invitation for Prince to represent the island at the Trinidad and Tobago Day in New York City this past August.
Prince collaborated with other local entrepreneurs to travel as a group and fundraised locally to make the trip possible, saying she believes that small businesses are important in Tobago because they can accelerate the island’s economic growth and create new employment opportunities.
For her personally, the trip to New York opened opportunities to expand her client base.
“I had talks with people in New York who would like to have our products exported,” says Prince. “We have to go through the export channels before we get into the U.S. market - it’s a process. But it will have a positive effect on my business.”
She credits her current expansion in part to her AWE experience, which involved a lot of juggling between work, studying and being a mother.
“The experience was hard sometimes, I had to be in class, I was also doing my bachelor’s degree, I have two kids, I am a wife, I am a nurse,” she says, with a glint of pride. “It was hard to stay on top of it. But it pushed me, it made me realize what I am capable of.”
When asked what she has to say to women who dream of opening their own business, Prince had a clear message:
“Do your homework, and don’t backpedal on your dreams,” she says, chuckling. “You have to believe in yourself and what you have learned, and use it to build new relationships and smash all your goals.”
The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs, a U.S. Department of State program in partnership with Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management and Freeport McMoran Foundation, gives women the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch and scale successful businesses. Since 2021, the U.S. Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago has empowered more than 50 women across both islands, with plans to welcome another 60 women to AWE in 2022.
For more information, please visit: https://eca.state.gov/awe.
Original source can be found here.
