Better quality, broader market
“The ghee was leaking from my simple container!” said Manal Al-Saoub, expressing frustration in transporting her traditional ghee and dairy products over long distances from her hometown in Al-Karak, Jordan to the capital Amman.
Manal lives with her retired husband and six children, where she tries to balance family duties and a dream of growing her home-based dairy business. Since establishing her business in 2018, Manal has realized that she needed to develop certain skills to better manage her products and solve the poor packaging issue.
Recognizing the challenges micro, small and home-based businesses face, the Informal Livelihoods Advancement Activity (Iqlaa), funded through the American Embassy in Amman, launched the Integrated, Technical Support Program in Al Karak governorate to strengthen managerial, financial and technical capacities of business owners like Manal, and help them achieve better product quality and presentation, access wider markets, and increase revenue.
Covering four tracks; food processing, handicrafts, textiles, and cosmetics, the program provided 121 hours of intensive capacity building, mentorship, and vocational training tailored to participants' business needs. The program also provided kits needed to develop participants’ products.
“I learned through the food processing training how to prepare traditional cheese my customers had long requested,” said Manal, expressing thrill to overcome the difficulty of adding a new product to her business.
Through the program, Manal and the participants were able to develop business branding, create promotional materials, and improve their packaging solutions.
“I participated in the Olive Festival in Amman. In the first week, I doubled my earnings by selling my newly branded and well-sealed bags of Jameed (dried yogurt), containers of traditional ghee, and the cheese product. Customers praised the secure packaging, which helped people ship some of my products to their families in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jerusalem,” Manal added.
“The program provided us with the branded packaging and promotional material design files. With these files, I could easily reprint branded packaging items, enabling me to participate in more bazaars and increase my sales. Now my customers can easily recognize my products under ‘Karakstore - Umm Obaida Al-Sa'oub for Dairy Products,' Manal expressed joyfully.
I am thrilled that my business grew and my sales doubled. I was happy customers started recognizing my trademark and associating my products through the packaging.
Manal, Business owner
The program in Karak trained 70 business owners, most of whom are led by women. This initiative is just part of the wider capacity building programs run by Iqlaa, which have supported more than 1,246 micro, small and home-based businesses across Jordan, where 259 of them managed to access new markets.