Call it thinking outside the box by working inside of it.
A new pop-up retail shipping container located in the ByWard Market has become home to small business owners as part of a new incubator program launched by Immigrant Entrepreneur Canada (IEC). The initiative is sponsored by RBC with the support of Meridian and Invest Ottawa. It involves the participation of 21 entrepreneurs hailing from 17 different countries.
Because it can be wildly expensive to come up with the start-up capital to run a storefront business, the project gives merchants a chance to set up shop in a more affordable way. They will each have one week to test their products and ideas among customers, tourists and visitors to the ByWard Market.
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The program, which runs until the end of October, includes workshops and one-on-one mentorship to give fledgling entrepreneurs the tools they need to get their business up and running.
“Let me tell you, they’re diving headfirst into this program,” said Karla Briones, founder and CEO of IEC, a national organization established in 2023 to support, nurture and elevate immigrant entrepreneurs across the country. “It’s a hands-on roller coaster of a ride.”
Dignitaries and partners gathered in the ByWard Market Square this morning for some speeches, followed by the official unveiling of the pop-up shop through a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
One of the participating entrepreneurs is a war refugee from Ukraine named Anastasia Temborska. The award-winning children’s book illustrator has crafted a collection of pins for all occasions, interests and whims. Her new venture is called PINBOX.
As an artist, Temborska struggles to stay organized. “Seriously, my to-do list has another to-do list,” she joked while expressing her gratitude toward IEC’s Summer Retail Incubator program for helping her to build her business “step by step”.
The gathering featured arguably the most inspiring business story: Syrian-Canadian entrepreneur Tareq Hadhad, CEO and founder of Peace by Chocolate.
At one time, he enjoyed a good life in the Middle East, where his father built one of the largest chocolate manufacturers and where he was part of a large and close-knit clan. By 2012, war had reached Hadhad’s home city of Damascus, making life very difficult and dangerous. There were soldiers, tanks and bombs. He could hardly breathe while hiding with his extended family in overcrowded basement quarters for five solid nights, without any of the basic necessities. Today, his relatives are scattered around the world in more than 27 countries.
“No one was ever born to immigrate,” he said. “Becoming a refugee is not a life goal … it is something that we are forced to go through because we’re born at the right place but at the wrong time.”
It was a conversation with a cab driver in 2015 that led to him eventually coming here the following year. The driver had told him about Canada while Hadhad was a refugee, living in Lebanon without hope. “Someone that I met for only 20 minutes changed my life and my family’s life forever. The small acts of kindness are so powerful,” said Hadhad while praising Briones for her own small act of kindness in helping the next generation of immigrant entrepreneurs through her new organization. Briones, who’s originally from Mexico, is also an immigrant entrepreneur.
The gifted storyteller spoke about how welcoming the rural town of Antigonish, N.S. was toward him and his family as they found themselves starting over from scratch. Peace by Chocolate began by selling boxes of homemade chocolate from a shed outside the family’s home, not unlike the pop-up shop situated in the ByWard Market. Today, his business is the third-largest employer in Antigonish and has touched hearts far and wide with its journey and impact. “Peace by Chocolate was born because of the support of our entire community in Antigonish.”
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, who was among the attendees, said he was looking forward to visiting the pop-up shop throughout the summer. “It’s going to be really cool to watch,” he added. “I can’t wait to come back and try, week after week, the different products that are going to be offered here.”
caroline@obj.ca
