This is a Guest Post by Cathy Presland. Cathy Presland teaches entrepreneurs to grow their business doing what they love. She specializes in helping you get known and generate income online. You can also follow her on Twitter.

I was in Beirut recently and I called in at the Maison de l’Artisan, which is a non-profit retail outlet in for hundreds of artisan producers all over Lebanon.

This got me thinking about the role of producer cooperatives and how they can help artisans, craft businesses and artists develop and sustain a local economy. I’ve seen some good and some not so good examples but there are a few common themes to most of them – and one single big mistake that I see many of them make.

What they can do for producers...


1. Organization and new markets. They can help small artisans, especially those will little or no formal education, get organized and get their products to a bigger market. Many traditional crafts are dying out as local economies, building methods and ways of living change. The tourist market is seen as a good opportunity in many countries to keep these traditional ways of working alive and providing rural or small communities with continued purpose.

2. Training. Government and other support can be channeled through these organizations upskilling producers and providing business and other skills. Skills the producers wouldn’t be able to access or afford alone. Keeping current and staying competitive is critical for very small – often micro-enterprises.

3. Breaking down barriers. Non-profit organizations and cooperatives can help cross the insurmountable information barrier that often exists between small producers and the international market. Local artisans might have no idea how to export, or how to sell their wares in the capital city but by working together and bringing in key advisers, it’s easily addressed for groups of producers.

4. Fair pricing and grant support for local communities. I prefer trade to aid and fair trade and fair pricing for rural artisans is a great way to keep money flowing into and around the poorest areas of many developing countries. Where aid can be used for education or infrastructure, cooperatives and non-profits can be a way to get relevant support out quickly to local communities.

5. Cultural heritage. Many crafts would die out if it wasn’t for access to the tourist and household market. The beauty and expertise that exists in traditional cultures can be given a new relevance in the modern economy. Yesterday’s essential skill can become today’s tourist gift.

But there’s one big mistake I see organizations like this make – and it’s the one that separates some of the most successful organizations from the rest.

But what about the customer?

Some producer cooperatives make it all about the producer. Well, why not you might ask? The answer is that there is no sustainable business model without a customer.

These organizations usually don’t want to be charities that ‘sell’ the benefits of supporting traditional culture. They want to exist as a way to bring traditional products to market. And in business we’ve got to understand what our customers want.

What I was looking for when I went to Maison de l’Artisan in Lebanon was to see something that was similar to what I’d seen in the high-end fashionable boutiques of Beirut. But I wanted to know I was supporting local producers at a fair price.

And the customer focus sometimes gets lost amongst the producer needs. It’s important to support local artisans and, through them, their communities. But for a sustainable ‘business’ or social enterprise, the customer interests are paramount.

What does the customer want is an important question to ask in the world of the craft cooperative. Create sustainable trade and create an economic relationship and it will have a much wider and more lasting effect than just the social one.

I’d love to know your experience of a member or a customer of this kind of producer cooperative or organisation. Leave a comment below!