Guyana’s newest business consultancy enterprise says it can offer the local business community any of the services that it can secure from abroad at rates well below those being charged by international business consultancies.
Business Unlimited, a multi-disciplinary – marketing, business advisory, public relations and human resource management – enterprise set up by two Guyanese professionals earlier this year boasts that the wealth of professional experience of the company’s two partners, Chantalle Smith and Jewel Mbozi, allows for the provision of services that compare favourably with those being offered by “high-priced” foreign companies that serve the business community in Guyana and other parts of the Caribbean.
Mbozi and Smith, two long-time friends, have combined their skills in a business venture having acquired a range of experience in marketing, human resource and public relations pursuits in the public and private sectors.
Smith, a graduate of Carleton University, Ottawa has undertaken marketing and public relations consultancies in Africa and Canada and has served as a human resources manager in the Guyana private sector. Mbozi, a graduate of the University of Guyana has also undertaken local consultancies in marketing, public relations and event management and has also held high-profile marketing jobs with several companies including Sprint 151, Grace Kennedy, British -American Tobacco and Remittance Services Ltd.
Both Smith and Mbozi say that the concept of Business Unlimited seeks to challenge the long-held notion in both the public and private sectors in Guyana that local consultancy services are inferior to those that experienced and qualified Guyanese consultants can offer.
Mbozi told Stabroek Business that apart from the fact that the company’s familiarity with the business and social environment in Guyana has equipped it with a knowledge base which foreign consultants can only acquire over time, there is also the advantage of being able to provide professional services at lower prices. “Lower overheads and the value of the Guyana dollar against the various foreign currencies allows Business Unlimited to provide services to a standard with which our clients can be satisfied at costs that are affordable,” Mbozi said.
The two partners believe that the advent of Business Unlimited could mark an important breakthrough for the growth of the small and medium sized business sectors in Guyana. Smith told Stabroek Business that there were many examples of businesses in Guyana that continued to operate at a near subsistence level in view of their inability to afford “high-priced” business development and marketing services that could contribute to their growth. “What Business Unlimited seeks to do is to make those services available to small and medium-sized businesses at costs that fall within their budgets. Our aim is to provide the whole range of small businesses in Guyana with access to services that can help them grow” she said.
According to Mbozi Business Unlimited has already established “strong professional relationships” with qualified local consultants and has also worked to forge links with both the private sector and with business-related public sector agencies.
Mbozi believes that the Project Design Implementation and Human Resource Management services can help persons seeking to establish businesses in Guyana to make “the right initial decisions,” to establish solid operational foundations and to develop sound employment policies. She says that the real value of Business Unlimited in this regard is that the services that it offers can place new businesses on the right footing “from the word go.”
Recently, Business Unlimited concluded an agreement with e-zone, a Trinidad and Tobago-based on-line shopping facility under which the local firm will market the service in Guyana. Smith told Stabroek Business that the two partners are currently combining their particular skills and experiences to broaden the base of on-line shopping in Guyana.
Apart from the conventional business, marketing and human resource services in which the company specializes, the entity is offering a range of “ancillary services” which Smith says seeks to respond to the particular and changing needs of the Guyana market. The range of services provided by the company include procurement, facilitating the payment of bills, running errands and personal and business event planning. Smith says that the new company is focusing on offering the business community and the society as a whole a quality of service that would help restore confidence in the local service sector and reduce local dependence on “imported services” that can be provided in Guyana.