Stephanie Pemberton wins emerging entrepreneur award for Planting Seeds

Our annual Champions of Business Awards took place on November 20, 2020 via a nationally televised programme which aired on CNC3 and was also streamed live. While in past years the event would have been a physical event, this year the Chamber was able to do its own pivot to ensure that the gala program went on while adhering to the restrictions of covid19.

This year’s theme of Redesign & Reimagine was particularly significant for our local entrepreneurs, who have been some of the hardest hit by covid measures. There were indeed some very interesting stories in the nominations received for the Entrepreneurship Awards category. This category, sponsored by Unit Trust, features two awards: Emerging Entrepreneur and SME Pivot.

The Emerging Entrepreneur sub-category award is bestowed on an individual or business experiencing strong growth. Today, the Chamber congratulates Stephanie Pemberton of Planting Seeds Marketplace on being selected as the Emerging Entrepreneur Award recipient for 2020. Out of a three finalists, Ms Pemberton impressed the selection panel with her business acumen and her entrepreneurial spirit which allows her to understand the moving business landscape and make timely decisions.

The Planting Seeds mission is “To provide a platform for entrepreneurship development in the Caribbean that educates and inspires individuals to innovate and exercise their full potential”. In March 2020 when the environment changed they recognised the need to support entrepreneurs in a new way. They were no longer able to host local markets which provided an avenue for entrepreneurs to go to market and generate sales. Pemberton quickly created the digital marketplace which provides the opportunity for entrepreneurs to sell products online and they also hired delivery drivers to service both islands.

This proved to be a much needed resource, since, in less than one year they have enjoyed sales of over $1 million. They have leveraged the Planting Seeds brand to help promote the marketplace as a key online resource for shopping, which currently includes over 250 stores and over 6000 products. While they are primarily focused on locally produced goods, a number of other companies have also seized the opportunity to promote their products via the marketplace. They are currently in the process of rolling out their service in other Caribbean islands. One of the primary reasons for the selection of this company as a finalist was the platform interface.

The emergence of the Planting Seeds Marketplace is an indication of what lies ahead for businesses in TT. In a competitive globalised world, the spirit of entrepreneurship is what will lead and sustain us. Stories such as those of Planting Seeds Marketplace and the finalists and nominees in the Emerging category serve to inspire and give hope.

The stories of our Emerging Entrepreneur finalists – Kathryn Nurse of Immortelle Beauty and Annabelle Boodoosingh of U-Pick Farms will be featured in a future column. And to all nominees in this category we say a warm thank you.

The video stories of our award recipients and finalists in all four categories of the Champions of Business are available for viewing at https://chamber.org.tt/cob2020.The categories include: Business Hall of Fame (sponsored by Guardian Life of the Caribbean), Internationally Known...T&T Owned Company of the Year (sponsored by Eximbank), Business Technology (sponsored by bmobile) and Entrepreneurship (sponsored by Unit Trust).