Small businesses owners producing boutique products face many hurdles to achieving success: the need to perfect their product, then to get it into the market place.
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The latter is often the hardest to achieve, and in many cases, local marketing campaigns have been a go to.
One example is the highly successful Seasons of New England, a Uralla-based retailer stocking more than 500 products and working with more than 150 businesses, in addition to running an annual expo event in March.
The Seasons of New England Expo showcases the unique character of the New England, through the products made in the region and the wonderful people who make them.
"We started the expo with a trial market event in 2014, after witnessing small local businesses getting lost in the landscape," expo director Tara Toomey said.
The aim was to provide a platform for people to discover what small and boutique producer businesses made in New England.
While plenty of people were supportive of the event, there was concern about the level of support it would draw, and that there would not be enough handmade product to interest people who might come.
Forging ahead, the Seasons of New England website was created and partnerships established.
Ms Toomey said the first Season's of New England Expo drew 52 stalls and 3200 patrons.
"We walked away with a small loss, plenty of lessons learnt and a renewed determination to do it bigger and better," she said.
In the years since, the expo has drawn a range of vendors from across the region, including Cameron Hayton's Walcha Coffee, Richard Daughery free-range meat products from Balala Station, Balala, west of Uralla, and Glen Olives, from Glen Innes.
"We operate independently but are deeply grateful for those in our business community who realised the economic and social benefit of our enterprise and now partner with us to support the delivery of the expo each year," Ms Toomey said.
"Each year since 2014, we had been creating hampers for gifts, and as a way of raising funds to pay some of the expo bills.
"It became clear it would also be a great way to provide broader support for the businesses we worked with, and then in late 2019 we had the opportunity to really scale this part of our business."
The NSW Government Buy Regional campaign raised the profile of many regional businesses, including Seasons of New England, which secured almost 2500 hamper orders in 10 short weeks, culminating in a truck delivery to Sydney with the final 1400.
"We started retailing online more formally from then on, and opened our retail shop front in late 2021," Ms Toomey said.
The only funding the group has so far received was a Destination NSW grant for marketing in 2016.
Seasons of New England 2024 will take place at Hampden Park in Uralla, on the corner of King and Maitland Streets, on Saturday, March 23, from 9am to 5pm.
