When Executive Chairman of Cool Group of companies, Joe Issa is not busy building his own Cool brand, he gets involved in helping others to put their own brands together, such as a little-known young man named Dominic McDowell, whose home-made chocolate-based brownies which he started in 2011, has become well known in Kingston today, under the brand name, D.A.M. Good Brownies.
“I have come a long way since 2011 when I started the business, making two flavours of brownies at home using my mother’s oven. Today, thanks in large measure to the training I received at the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in Montego Bay and the support of my mentor Joe Issa, my production capacity and brand recognition have increased significantly.
“I have also increased the number of flavours to 16 and they are now being sold in several outlets in Kingston. The brownies are also being frequently requested for Premium events. People love my products and demand is rising steadily,” McDowell told the North Coast Times in an interview on October 15, 2015.
According to George Jude’s October 1, 2014 article in PRWeb titled “Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship, Joe Issa Mentorship Spur Growth of Business in 2014 – Dominic McDowell”, at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/08/prweb12093646.htm, McDowell hailed Issa and the Branson Centre for the success he had achieved thus far.
“At first it was only me and afterwards I employed two workers and was producing 500 units per week. But after I started the training (at the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship – Caribbean) and began interacting with my mentor Joe Issa, I realised that more can be achieved. He encouraged me to expand and very quickly I moved to 600 units per week.
“Upon further consultation with my mentor I expanded further, to 1,000 units per week and within a few weeks I will be producing 1,600 units per week,” McDowell revealed in the 2014 PRWeb article. He said he had achieved significant growth of his small business that year, “thanks to the training at the Branson Centre and the mentorship of Joe Issa.”
He added, “My mentor was very supportive of my business model, which is to concentrate on production and distribution only. I don’t want to get involved in setting up a sales outlet in front of my factory and he supported that. This means that my new factory does not have to be located on expensive, main street sites.”
The then 26-year-old said that Issa encouraged him to make several strategic moves, which enabled the business to expand, including the establishment of a website,
http://www.facebook.com/D.A.M.GoodEnterprises to push the brand and the employment of three Brand Ambassadors based at the University of the West Indies and University of Technology (U Tech). Their task, he said, was to promote the product. “They do sales and create brand awareness and this has led to a significant increase in sales.”
The D.A.M. Good Brownies brand, in which ‘D.A.M.’ represent McDowell’s initials had also developed its own logo and other promotional material, which were being distributed by the Brand Ambassadors at the universities and at other promotional events, he informed in the article.
“I have absolutely no regrets since doing so; the training was great, we shared our experiences and formed strategic alliances. Joe Issa was extremely helpful. He enabled me to get access to human resources; I could call him and members of his (Cool brand) team for assistance. The experience has been good for me; it has helped solidify my business model and enabled me to expand distribution,” said McDowell, who is a banking and financial services graduate of UTech.
McDowell told the North Coast Times that he was taking his time to grow the business and is currently working on refreshing the brand image, preparing to launch the company’s official website, and expanding the service offerings of D.A.M. Good Brownies.
