The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

ALTHOUGH she has several educational qualifications that can be listed behind her name, Bahamian businesswoman Raeh Williams prefers to be known as an entrepreneur, simply because it is the truest description of who she is professionally.

The push to start an independent business may come later on in some people’s lives, but for Raeh, it came at the tender age of 14. For the past decade, she has been practicing as a professional quantity surveyor and project manager, but during the last four years she turned her focus to events and entrepreneurial training.

“I realised that it is my calling.

I’ve completed extensive training over the last few years on entrepreneurial and online business training and coaching,” Raeh told Tribune Woman. Raeh said it was just this year when she decided to merge her fields of expertise – entrepreneurial training and coaching.

“More than anything I am passionate about success; for myself, and then it became about helping others experience it. I started the path with the goal to develop myself and started to have so many people coming to me for input that I realised I could be sharing my expertise and experience with others on a wider scale. For the events, again, most of them are inspired by the goal of trying to empower people,” she said.

Her Sugar Bay Events company, Raeh said, is designed to give small confectioners access to a larger than usual market. Sugar Bay Events is also ran and operated by Raeh’s husband, Don Williams, and her mother, Gina Mortimer-Storr.

One of the main events that fall under the Sugar Bay Events’ umbrella is Raeh’s Sugar + Spice empowerment seminar for “tween” girls aged eight to 13. Raeh describes the event as a fun-filled day of festivities.

“We want to empower the girls, but most girls at that age won’t find sitting in a conference or seminar that exciting. We decided to wrap everything up in ‘girly’ fun, so while we’re presenting, they’ll also be having girl time with pampering, going through their sample bags, games and activities like dancing and yoga,” she said.

Raeh said she became inspired to create the Sugar + Spice event after a conversation in which someone told her: “If I knew these things when I was leaving high school, I would have been so much further ahead.” 

Instantly, Raeh said she realised there was a need to teach young people about business, career and entrepreneurial skills from a real-world perspective. She said although the textbook theories have their place, they often miss the mark on preparing youngsters for success early in life.

“I remember being 21 and telling myself I really don’t want to be a big corporate executive because it just didn’t feel right for my personality. It took me many years to figure out how I could still live the life of my dreams, live in purpose and still make a good living. We’re not taught how to figure these things out and I’d like to change that,” she said.

Raeh is now preparing to host Sugar + Spice on June 21 at the New Providence Community Centre on Blake Road, from at 9am until 6pm. While the event is expected to feature loads of fun activities, Raeh said there will also be a deeper empowerment message given.

There will be seminar-style presentations on life skills, career choices, entrepreneurship, health and beauty from an holistic standpoint, self-love, self-confidence, communication, and even a discussion how to deal with crushes, she said. 

The activities will include facials and pedicures, yoga and a lot of dance breaks and high-energy fun. There will also be a social media project to teach young ladies how to responsibly use social media.

“The girls will come and everything will be taken care of, goodie bags loaded with samples and snacks, a journal and other girly stuff, as well as a healthy meals and snacks throughout the day are all taken care of, so there’s no added pressure on the girls to have money to buy things,” Raeh said.

“Everyone gets to enjoy everything so we can focus on the message we have for them.”

The presenters at Sugar + Spice include: T’Shera Gaitor (YEP mentor and engineer), Keshelle Kerr (trainer and empowerment specialist), Macarra Fowler (entrepreneur), Rhonda Wright (wellness advocate; co-producer of Green Earth Festival). There will also be a female deejay.

“The goal of Sugar + Spice is to empower these tweens by having them able to identify with the success they see in front of them, to see it as attainable; to have them leaving feeling like they can achieve whatever vision God has put in their heart, even if it’s different or seems unreachable to the outside world because the ladies at the event did it,” said Raeh.

Raeh said she hopes to host the event annually in Nassau, on the Family Islands, as well as abroad for different age groups. She is also working on the boys’ version of Sugar + Spice. 

“I’m currently in talks with some coaches in Tampa who want us to bring the event there, so we’re exploring the opportunity. We’re also setting up a closed online community where once the girls go through the programme at the event, they can come to the private community and reach out to mentors for support and share tips and experiences with others. We want to empower these kids to win and we’re committed to working hard to make it happen,” said Raeh.

For more information and up-to-date news on Sugar + Spice, check out their Facebook page at Sugar Bay Events.