Interviews and photos by Cathy Richards
This week we asked small business people in Linden about the problems they have had accessing loans to start up or expand their businesses through the Linden Economic Advancement Fund (LEAF). Below are their responses:
Clint Griffith – ‘I applied for a loan from LEAF for about a year ago and we were waiting for some meeting. I have been waiting and nothing has been happening and up to now we haven’t gotten through. I had to do so much running around to get a lot of papers together. I had to get quotations for the cars because was two cars I wanted to buy. So it’s like I wasted a lot of valuable time and money. I had to expend money to travel to Georgetown back and forth; then I had to pay for those quotations. I had to get a document confirming how much money I worked for on a daily basis and a whole lot of other things and yet nothing has come through. Right now I have totally given up because nobody is telling you anything they just left you up in the air.
I wanted to buy two other cars because I am finished paying for the one I have and I wanted to expand my business and that would have been employment for another couple of guys. It is very sad and stressful for our people. The process of having to go through a dealer and paying on terms I am not too much for it. It would have been so much better to pay the dealers cash and pay off my loan in a more secure and safe environment but with this kind of holdup it is definitely not good for us here.’
William Washington – ‘Basically I borrowed a sum of cash about two years ago. I paid it back before the time. Then I went back for another loan. I had a grocery store and then I expanded into a general store so I went back to them and asked for a refinancing loan. They told me I had to get collateral for the loan so I went about and got security for it. I made the application in early November and until this day I haven’t gotten any word. This really messed up my business plan because I was expecting to get through by December but all I keep hearing is next month, today, tomorrow and nothing really happening. I had to just forget about the whole thing and start to do things like borrowing money from people and pay back with a little interest. So this delay really affected me a lot because the way I wanted to do business I can’t get to do it. Where my business is situated in Amelia’s Ward there is a housing drive. When people come they need things and if you can’t supply the demand customers would move on to somewhere else. I am still hoping that I can get through with the loan because I applied at other institutions and the security and the amount of things they want, it’s not an easy task for people from Linden. It is so much easier with LEAF and they know they don’t have any problems with me when it comes to honouring my commitment to them. I am always up-to-date with my payments.’
Rudolph Richards – ‘I had loans before with LEAF. We experienced difficulties in terms of improving the business to get it to a level where you can compete on the market. LEAP and LEAF had done a really done a good job in getting us started but you need to be competitive on the market. You need finances to keep you on the market and it is really difficult to access loans because LEAF has closed off and we don’t know exactly when they would start back.
At present in the town of Linden itself with the layoff of workers we are experiencing a serious financial difficulty in terms of your turnover to realize some of your dreams. At the moment my business is suffering because we need serious expansion. Every day customers are complaining that the product is not reaching them as they really expected within a specific time span. Areas like Amelia’s Ward, Wisroc phases two and three, One Mile extension and other areas are crying out because the product is not meeting them. Currently it’s only one vehicle I have to do transporting throughout the entire Linden and I can’t reach everybody. I have tried on numerous occasions but the present state of the loan and the situation with the funding agency being closed and not knowing exactly when it will restart is cause for concern. We are hoping that with the government coming in, things could happen for us on the real side especially for us in Linden and small, medium and large scale businessmen. We really want to see things happen for this town and the people in Linden. I tried other sources to get loans but like everything else these things take a time and if it is a situation where you are dealing with an institution it is usually difficult to get into another institution right off to get loan from them.’
Clive Bellamy – ‘Getting the loan from LEAF really means a lot to me because I don’t have the kind of out-the-pocket cash to go and make cash purchases for the type of business I am looking at so I really need help to do my thing. The job market in Linden is really tough right now and if I could get to do what I want would provide jobs for a couple of people. Since I applied I haven’t heard another thing from them (LEAF) I am hearing things like they close down and they not giving money anymore in the line of purchasing vehicles and that is what I am seriously looking at. They are saying only for business that would employ three or four people they are going to give loans to but I can’t drive all the buses it means that persons would have to be employed. I am very strict about working with a conductor so with each bus at least three persons would get work. I never tried to apply to any other institution for a loan because of the push around we people usually get. LEAP and LEAF were meant to aid the development and or expansion of small, medium and large scale businesses in Linden and so we were all looking forward to that happening. However it seems like we are being tossed in a corner and persons can’t get loans to really do stuff for Linden. I am really hoping that they could fix things and let the people who applied so long ago get through and move on with doing something to develop this town and more than anything else get jobs for people. I hope things could get going before the end of this year.’
Sonia Jackson – ‘I am really disappointed because at this time both my partner and I are unemployed and it is really hard finding a job. That is what led us to deciding to go into business. Forever we have been hearing that it’s time that people should become self sufficient and get into business. We made that decision. The thing is business calls for capital investment and so we decided to go to LEAF for a loan to start up a small business. Since we did it has no forward movement. It has been delays after delays after delays. We are very frustrated at this point because it seems like nothing is going to get going in our favour. I would be more that happy if the government, LEAP and whoever else is responsible could do something pretty fast to get this thing going. Things in Linden are really hard and the only way to bring things back is for persons to start up new or expand existing businesses. Things can get better but with all this frustration things seem cloudy.’
Renford Wilson – ‘When I started I didn’t even have this shop yet so I said that I was going to put in for this loan so I would have been able to extend. I usually mind cows, chicken, pigs, sheep and those things. So I decided to apply for this loan to do this butcher shop because I wanted a beef cutter and a mince machine so that is how I decided to apply for the loan but nothing has happened since. I really thought that I would have been able to take a part of the loan and stock the shelf but it never come through. I had to scrape all corners and find some money on my own and get things going but I am still looking forward to the loan because I really need the beef cutter and the mince machine. Those two pieces of machinery would help me a great lot to expand my business.
While we are waiting for them to sort things out I am losing business. I am located in the Wismar market and we are really trying hard to attract business over here. What is happening is that people are leaving here and going to Mackenzie butcher shops to get mince. So you see what is happening, is like making one step forward and two steps backwards. The other thing is I have good stocks that I could supply beef in Linden on a large scale but I am stifling because of the lack of machinery. All the butchers have to be going to Georgetown to buy beef when they can get it right here. It would even work out much cheaper. I am begging them to put their house in order very soon so that we could get things going and I would be able to get my machinery at least in time for Christmas. In this community where there are hardly any jobs and you are trying to create jobs for other people, they are slowing up the process of the people. So if they could speed things up and push things it would be better for us.’
Carol Duggan – ‘I had loans from LEAF twice and I didn’t really have a problem. The employees there are very nice they pushed things but to be truthful at this point in time that I didn’t get the loan I didn’t mind. I say this because right now money is not circulating in Linden and I don’t think that I would have been able to make back that money in such a short time. I was very glad for the loan at first but after they had us on a hold for such a long time I said that if it comes it comes and if it doesn’t come… well. But when you look at what is going on now you hardly getting to make the money. Now looking at my location, I am not in the front point I am all the way in here [Canvas City, Wismar]. At one point in time I didn’t really think about it when they said that they didn’t have the money to give us. As time went by I kept calling to find out what was going on with the loan, if they were still going to be giving or not and things like that. It’s not that I don’t want it but if I get it I would accept it and put it to good use and try really hard to ensure that I do as I did in the past in paying it back in good time but for right now I am not digging nothing with them.’
Camille Cummings – ‘I applied to LEAF for a mini loan which would have been used to complete the enclosing of the bottom flat of my private residence to be used as an educational institution. As a professional qualified teacher I intended to provide extra educational and non-academic subjects. It was my dream to work with present students of primary and secondary schools, school dropout. More than me having my dreams fulfilled I would have been providing employment for an additional six teachers and a cleaner. Since it has been so long that I had applied for the loan and haven’t gotten through, I tried my best to keep my dreams alive. So far I have been able to enclose half of the area and put in washroom facilities and some amount of furnishing utilizing personal funds and with the help of friends and loved ones. For this half I still need to have the windows and interior doors in. I am very disappointed that LEAF has not come through for me since I applied since October – November of 2008. As I understand it the LEAP and LEAF programme were put in place to bring about economic relief for the people of Region 10 and more so the Linden community. This is not what has happened and I am very disappointed. I would love to see that this programme really come through for us and let us do the things we have to do to take our town out of its present state.’
