About Vice-Principal ResearchIn January 2021, Amanda enrolled in the Digital Skills Marketing Boot Camp offered through the WE-CAN Project and delivered by Jennifer Baker Consulting of Kingston
Amanda Findlay is the owner of Go Green Baby, a vibrant community hub for parents and children in Kingston, Ontario. A proud member of the LGBTQ2 community, their business provides a simple, natural choice for pregnancy, babies, children and families. Products include cloth diapers, maternity and nursing wear, sustainable toys, and more.
Photo courtesy of Amanda Findley
Go Green Baby also provides online consultations and shopping with free local delivery and shipping for the eco-minded family in the Kingston area and beyond.
Prior to the start of the pandemic, Go Green Baby had just expanded the business by renting a second unit in their building to host small indoor events such as childbirth classes, support groups, Baby and Me groups and private rentals for events like baby showers. During COVID-19, this space was unusable, and the business faced mounting financial pressures.
Due to COVID-19, Amanda was forced to close the doors of their bricks-and-mortar shop and move their business online. The business was also unable to host any indoor gathering events in their new rented space.
Although the business re-opened its physical space between lockdowns, during these time periods they were limited in the number of people who could enter the store at one time to ensure proper physical distancing was maintained.
As a result, Amanda focused their energy on building and growing their online store offerings in an effort to keep the business up and running.
They still have the dream of providing a family-centred community space for the Kingston area once it is safe again to do so.
In January 2021, Amanda enrolled in the Digital Skills Marketing Boot Camp offered through the WE-CAN Project and delivered by Jennifer Baker Consulting of Kingston.
The 6-week coaching program was made available to 10 women entrepreneurs who owned an established business in the greater Kingston region that was negatively affected by COVID-19.
Participants attended weekly group coaching sessions, in addition to two individual coaching sessions with Jennifer Baker Consulting.
“WE-CAN helped focus our efforts on our digital platforms and assisted us in learning where and how to best put our energy,” says Amanda. “The Digital Marketing Sales Boot Camp was an invaluable source for helping me learn how to create a realistic plan for our digital platforms. COVID forced us to be online more and WE-CAN helped us through that transition.”
Although developing and planning Go Green Baby’s marketing strategies has taken more time and effort than expected, Amanda says the team recognizes and appreciates that a solid foundational plan is the key for their future success.
In the past year, Amanda has created one new job and maintained one job in their business.
“The WE-CAN Project helped me face the music and know that a lot more planning needed to go into our digital platforms,” Amanda explains. “We created a new job for a local person to assist with our digital presence, and we found a digital marketing student (a female visible minority) who needed a placement. We are now receiving the extra help we need and feel proud to have provided new learning and job opportunities for our community.”
The WE-CAN Project is led by Queen’s University and funded in part by FedDev Ontario through the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES) Ecosystem Fund.