Small and micro business owners are unlearning the bad habits that cause businesses to fail.
On Monday June 29th, the Ministry of Commerce, Enterprise and Small Business Development held an opening ceremony for a three day workshop geared at reshaping the minds of entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.
Alexander Stephenson is Executive Director of the Dominica Employment and Small Business Support Agency, and says the training is two-fold.
He listed Phase One’s objectives as, “… to ensure that small business owners are exposed to appropriate knowledge and skills; to enhance their ability to better manage their businesses, and to create opportunities for networking and harmonizing best practices for efficient businesses.”
Stephenson added that clients and applicants who participate actively in the trainings will be given priority for financial assistance and will move on to Phase Two.
Phase Two involves the use of business plan creation software, sales and marketing plans software and Quickbooks 2015 software. Trainees and clients will have their business accounts secured on the servers of the Small Business Support Unit for three years. This will aid in capital sourcing.
The Hon. Minister for Commerce, Enterprise and Small Business Development, Roslyn Paul, says Government has an integrated approach to enterprise development that will allow the participants to adopt better practices.
“We seek to support and create livelihoods and transform lives,” she said. “This is just one of the strategies to reach this goal.”
She told trainees that small grants are available from the Ministry and from the National Development Foundation of Dominica.
Topics at the training workshop include how to create a culture of quality customer service and understanding buyer behaviour.
The Hon. Minister for Trade, Energy and Employment, Ian Douglas says the workshop will enable the entrepreneurs to contribute to national development.
“Even if you have a great idea and cheap funding is available to you, it takes much more to create a successful business. This is why what we are doing here will become important to you.”
Just last month a similar programme took place in Portsmouth with the same objectives: to provide support and training to small business owners and entrepreneurs.