Raphael John-Lall

Jonathan Adams, pres­i­dent of the Small En­ter­pris­ing Busi­ness As­so­ci­a­tion (SE­BA), is hop­ing that the Gov­ern­ment projects in 2011 will give the sec­tor a much-need­ed boost af­ter a tough 2010. "There's like­ly to be some sec­tor growth for small and medi­um en­ter­pris­es (SME), once the Gov­ern­ment projects, like the high­way to Point Fortin, get start­ed. If it doesn't hap­pen, this could ham­per growth in the sec­tor. Many small busi­ness­es are suf­fer­ing be­cause of the eco­nom­ic cli­mate." He called on the Gov­ern­ment to put in place leg­is­la­tion that will give the SME sec­tor pref­er­ence in the pro­cure­ment process.

Fol­low­ing tri­par­tite dis­cus­sions that be­gan back in 2007, the pre­vi­ous gov­ern­ment had agreed to look at award­ing at least 10 per cent of its pro­cure­ment and con­tracts to small busi­ness­es from sup­plies, cater­ing and skills ser­vices to main­te­nance jobs at state-owned build­ings and op­er­a­tions. SE­BA is seek­ing to in­crease its small en­ter­pris­es share of the "pro­cure­ment pie" to 20 per cent. "We are hop­ing the Labour and Small and Mi­cro En­ter­prise De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Er­rol McLeod makes an an­nounce­ment that he will be pro­vid­ing Cab­i­net with a note in re­la­tion to the fair share pro­gramme. This re­lates to the re­serv­ing for the SME sec­tor a per­cent­age of gov­ern­ment con­tracts.

"In this way, the big­ger con­trac­tors will not have a play in this. "In the ab­sence of leg­is­la­tion, the sec­tor will not have any share in state con­tracts." Un­til there is the "fair share" leg­is­la­tion, Adams hopes that the Gov­ern­ment con­sid­ers the SME sec­tor when the con­struc­tion of the high­way to Point Fortin be­gins lat­er this year. "Ar­eas like rentals of equip­ment, in­crease in guest­house rooms and in­crease in food ven­dors and trans­porta­tion are just some op­por­tu­ni­ties that the small busi­ness sec­tor will have when the high­way con­struc­tion be­gins." He agrees with the Gov­ern­ment that 25,000 di­rect and in­di­rect jobs will be cre­at­ed when the high­way ex­pan­sion be­gins, adding that the SME sec­tor has to use this op­por­tu­ni­ty for growth.

Small busi­ness­es still grow

De­spite the poor state of the econ­o­my, Adams said peo­ple are still open­ing busi­ness­es. In fact, be­cause of the econ­o­my and the need for em­ploy­ment, peo­ple are open­ing their own busi­ness­es for sur­vival. "Peo­ple are look­ing for work in any eco­nom­ic down­turn and when peo­ple lose jobs, they want to start a busi­ness to earn mon­ey and sur­vive." Adams said about 20 peo­ple go to SE­BA every month seek­ing ad­vice on busi­ness­es they have start­ed.

"They come for ad­vice on mar­ket­ing or on ac­count­ing or just gen­er­al ad­vice to get their busi­ness­es run­ning." Adams said at least four peo­ple go to SE­BA every month on how to start a new busi­ness.

"These are peo­ple who have not yet reg­is­tered with the Min­istry of Le­gal Af­fairs and who just want to get off the ground." He be­lieves it is an in­di­ca­tion that de­spite the pre­vail­ing eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stances, small busi­ness­es can sur­vive.

Lend­ing agen­cies

Adams wants to see a re­struc­tur­ing in the lend­ing agen­cies that do busi­ness with the SME sec­tor. The state-owned Na­tion­al En­tre­pre­neur­ship De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny (Ned­co) is one agency that pro­vides mi­cro fi­nanc­ing to the SME sec­tor. "I don't want to call names, but once there is re­struc­tur­ing in these lend­ing agen­cies, they will per­form bet­ter and will be bet­ter able to ser­vice small busi­ness­es. There is still an ab­sence of boards in some of these agen­cies and we hope that can be dealt with quick­ly by the Gov­ern­ment." Adams al­so asked how many rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the SME sec­tor are on state boards.

"When I look at re­cent board ap­point­ments, I re­al­ly don't see many peo­ple from this sec­tor. I want to see the Gov­ern­ment ad­dress this."

Car­ni­val

"Car­ni­val is up­on us. It is time for all the stake­hold­ers to meet so that all can ben­e­fit from the sea­son. Many small busi­ness­es do well dur­ing this time. Those who are cater­ers, food ven­dors, peo­ple who sell clothes to tourists. These are all le­git­i­mate en­tre­pre­neurs who have busi­ness dur­ing the year and do well dur­ing Car­ni­val," he said.

The year ahead

Adams has ex­pressed op­ti­mism that the SME sec­tor will grow in 2011, but qual­i­fied this by say­ing that there needs to be the right eco­nom­ic con­di­tions to en­able growth. "Peo­ple open new busi­ness­es every day. What is im­por­tant is the lifes­pan of these busi­ness­es. The Gov­ern­ment must part­ner with en­tre­pre­neurs to en­sure that the SME sec­tor sur­vives," he said.