With potential business owners ready to move from ‘flat footing hustles’ into substantive, structured small businesses, the state-run mechanisms that have supposedly been put in place to facilitate the transition, and which are presumed to be ‘fit for purpose’ organizations do not, in many instances, appear in practice, to ideally serve the purpose for which they were created. Head of the small business support organization, Together We Win, Marlon Joseph, earlier this week told the Stabroek Business that he believed that state-run entities seeking to lend support to small business entities needed to have an awareness of where those potential small businesses are “coming from” if workable initiatives are to be created to enable the smooth passage of what have been “small time hustles” into “substantive businesses.”
Noting that many “small time hustlers” take the plunge into business “out of a desire to grow” and sometimes without knowing the ropes as to how to manage a conventional business, Joseph told the Stabroek Business that he believed that state agencies responsible for helping to facilitate that “graduation” into conventional businesses must first have an understanding of “where their clients are coming from” so that the support systems can be structured to provide them with genuine support. Contextually, Joseph cited what he said was sometimes the “awkwardness” of engagements between prospective small business owners and the state-run Small Business Bureau. (SBB).
“The truth of the matter is that directives from the Bureau to these people to become compliant in terms of NIS and the GRA can become a turn-off since these first-time aspirants are not accustomed to what can be the tedious nature of the procedures associated with interfacing with those agencies…I am not suggesting that we set aside the laid-down procedures. What I am suggesting, however, is that the SBB serve as a means through which the NIS and GRA requirements can be facilitated and be expedited.”
At the same time, he said that state institutions providing services which small businesses and aspiring small business owners need to access, should create “special windows” that would remove what, he said, was, frequently, “the hassle” associated with securing the critical services associated with securing particular objectives. “People should not be prevented from realizing their ambitions simply because they are not familiar with the procedures that will help them get to where they want to go.” Joseph told the Stabroek Business. Meanwhile, Joseph told this newspaper that he believed, as Head of a small business support group that local small business organizations, including some that purport to deliver services that can help small businesses grow, were in some instances, out of their depth, lacking as they do both the knowledge and the organizational skills to accomplish what they purportedly set out to do.
The Together We Win Head told the Stabroek Business that while it was desirable that access to the services and facilities accruing to local businesses should mean that they are required to “fully comply” with the criteria, including business registration and GRA and NIS compliance, he believed that many small enterprises that were prepared “to put themselves in order” were discouraged by the procedures. “I am not suggesting that these small businesses be exempted from the rules. What I am suggesting, though, is that people who need the time to go about making a living ought to be spared the run-around associated with dealing with some state agencies. I believe that ways can be found of making the system easier for people,” Joseph said.
Meanwhile, Joseph conceded that some umbrella organizations ‘housing’ small businesses as members lack the resources associated with providing small businesses with “sound direction.” He said that he believed that there was much merit in those organizations’ move to acquire the skills that are required to provide guidance to emerging small businesses. He also said that small business umbrella organizations working in the interest of small business should be afforded more ready access to the relevant state agencies, including the Small Business Bureau, in order to expedite matters. He said he believed that the system is likely to function more smoothly if there could be more problem-solving exchanges between entities like the Small Business Bureau and the various private business support organizations.
Joseph told the Stabroek Business, meanwhile, that Together We Win had “gained in experience” from the initiative it had taken last year to establish links with the Suriname Association of Small and Medium-sized Companies, committing the two sides to working together on a number of mutually beneficial initiatives aimed at strengthening relations between and among small businesses in the two neighbouring countries, even as Georgetown and Paramaribo sought to consolidate relations at the government to government level. Joseph told Stabroek Business, however, that his organization had encountered “challenges” that have caused the initiative not to gather any meaningful momentum up to this time. Asked whether he felt that micro and small business groups might benefit from guidance or coaching from one or more of the ‘senior’ business support organizations, perhaps the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association or the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Joseph said that he felt that among the smaller umbrella organizations there was likely to be differences of opinion on that matter.
And, according to Joseph, the hurdles associated with establishing an umbrella small business organization that could speak for micro and small businesses as a whole could prove challenging. He said that the transformative changes which recent socio-economic developments had brought about in the country had created a greater sense of urgency among small business owners and aspiring owners arising out of a concern over being left behind. Joseph told the Stabroek Business that the institutions that had been set up to support the growth of a vibrant small business sector needed to be seized with the sense of urgency currently being felt by small business aspirants regarding the importance of going forward. He is uncertain as to whether that mindset exists at this time.
