For entrepreneurs managing small and medium enterprises marketing can be a major headache. Falling back on "Word-of-mouth" has its obvious limitations. Moreover, with limited budget, advertising in conventional media is costly and may not even have the desired effects. Many SME entrepreneurs are niche players so advertising in the print or electronic media, which targets the mass market, is not likely to be cost effective.

What can then be a good marketing platform where small entrepreneurs can not only advertise their products but also sell them on the spot, gather market intelligence on customer behavior and competitors' products, explore opportunities for cooperative production or marketing, and do all that in the presence of targeted international buyers and sellers?

An international trade fair that promotes specific niches may be a promising platform.

A month ago, the 3rd Asian Women Entrepreneur Eid Fair 2006 in Dhaka Bangladesh kicked off with a similar mission. At the fair, there were 64 stalls. And women entrepreneurs came from many Asian countries, although predominantly from Bangladesh and Pakistan. And they had an array of products, including all kinds of clothing items, shoes, bangles, herbal cosmetics and home decor pieces.

But has the fair lived up to its mission?

Bangladeshi Entrepreneurs: "Tough Competition but Good Experience"
Lucky Alam, the proprietor of Anindo's, a boutique in Dhaka, sells a variety of clothing items. Her sales at the store were brisk and she also managed to export some of her products to Canada and USA. And Lucky says she did it all without any government assistance.

But at the fair, she realized foreign products were competing her products out. She claims although her products were no less of quality than foreign ones the reason why foreign stalls were doing better was that visitors were more ...