Part One
Stabroek Business: What was the thinking behind the National Small Business Week event? What was the Chamber seeking to accomplish?
GCCI President: National Small Business Week was built on the initiative of showcasing small businesses. We recognized that small businesses need to be captured in a formal setting, mentored, brought into an organization that would help them promote their businesses and learn how to do business. We recognized that gap, and we decided to showcase them. We did outreaches to sensitize them to our recognition of the gaps and our desire to work with them in a formal setting.
The next activity was ‘Teenternship’. This activity was twofold; we tackled young/prospective entrepreneurs and school-leavers, bringing them into the work environment to help them appreciate the role of a leader. We put them into a work environment where they could interact with Business Leaders in order to cause them to have a greater appreciation of what it takes to run a business. We also had the Business Mixer – part of the exercise where small business owners could network, market, and promote their businesses. There was also a seminar during which information was shared formally. There, we discussed issues related to finances, marketing and business acumen. We ended the week with Small Businesses being able to showcase their products to ‘sell’ their business. One of the objectives is to bring them into the fold. There were sixty exhibitors. Thirty of them were not members of any organization. Our objective is to bring them into the fold, to cause them to have direct access to information through the Chamber.