Prime Minister Mia Mottley is encouraging entrepreneurs to consider expanding their businesses beyond Barbados to expand their market range, generate more sales, and be resilient.
She made the call on Friday while delivering the feature address at the Goddard Enterprises Limited 100th Anniversary Entrepreneur Competition awards ceremony, held at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination.
“There is no business that can just rise overnight just like that and not face difficulties and challenges; you see spikes up and spikes down. The reality is that small businesses, because of the lack of depth of both human and financial resources, are therefore more vulnerable to the shocks . . . .
“One of the constraints that we’ve not overcome is that our market size is simply too small and if we are not prepared to look beyond our shores, it is going to mean that if people want to maintain their quality of life and their standard of living, they are going to push up their prices, particularly those that are discretionary, in order to be able to sustain the quality of life they want; that then means you are going to become uncompetitive,” she said, pointing out that there were several opportunities to boost business through regional trade by way of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.
“I want to continue to encourage and urge our people to recognise that there are many reasons why you should not put all your eggs in one basket. It is a simple thing that we were taught as children. If we believe that all of our business can only be in Barbados, then when Barbados is hit by a hurricane or when our Barbados is hit by a major international economic shock, then you will get those dips. By all means, your foundation is here but you have to start to reach outside our borders . . . . When we speak, therefore, about becoming climate resilient or resilient financially and economically, these are the things that we are speaking to. But it requires us not to have a conversation which Bajans are good at, but to also have action to anchor those conversations.”
Over the course of three years, a number of small companies from Barbados and across the region took part in a mentorship and development competition organised by Goddard Enterprises.
During Friday’s award ceremony, two of the three finalists emerged winners and each received a $50 000 cheque and an award. They were Dale Trotman of MedRegis, a digital outpatient records keeping company, and Michael Thornton of Mike’s Bajan Beverages which specialises in flavourful alcoholic drinks. Third place went to Deborah Bishop, of BB’s Mushrooms, a mushroom farming company.
In total, Goddard gave $257 000 to the semi finalists and finalists.
The winners of the Goddard Enterprises 100th Anniversary Entrepreneur Competition, Dale Trotman (left) and Michael Thornton (right), with runner-up Deborah Bishop (centre). (JB)
Saying that she was impressed by the competition and its structure, Mottley said she was prepared to set up a similar competition on a national scale, which would involve many private sector companies mentoring and supporting small businesses as part of their corporate social responsibility.
She said there were Barbadians who had great ideas and talent and they just needed the right platform to kickstart them.
The prime minister said there were many appeals for the government to establish large-scale facilities to accommodate a variety of businesses in various fields, as was done for the food industry when the International Food Science Centre in Newton Christ Church was set up.
She said her administration was asked to establish a similar facility for the fashion industry, culture industry and businesses focusing on technology and artificial intelligence.
Chief executive officer of Goddard Enterprises Anthony Ali said the idea to have the competition came out of a conversation between Mottley and some business executives some years ago. He said the idea was to “give entrepreneurs a real chance to have their business take off from a solid foundation”.
“We wanted to make sure the entrepreneur was committed and had a solid plan to move forward,” Ali said.
The winners of the competition expressed heartfelt gratitude for the experience and opportunity they got to grow something they were passionate about.
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