Size ‘no barrier’ to small enterprises

THE HEAD of the Barbados Small Business Association (BSBA) says size is not a limiting factor in business.“We need to embrace the fact that small is only in terms of size,” BSBA’s president Celeste Foster said recently as she briefed the media on the Enterprise in Action (EIA) youth programme at the association’s Pelican Industrial Park offices. “It does not speak to your competence. It does not speak to your ability,” Foster added. She said the programme was in keeping with the association’s mandate to facilitate the sustainability of micro, small and medium enterprises through the provision of educational, financial and commercial opportunities.Entrepreneurs of the future“We are of the view that the young people of today are the entrepreneurs of the future. The EIA programme is designed therefore to introduce potential young entrepreneurs to the concept of small business ownership as a viable career choice,” the president said.The programme, which was started last September in five secondary schools and one primary school, covers the fundamentals of starting a business, including brainstorming, business plan development and utilising entrepreneurial development services.“In essence we seek to bring the challenges, as well as the excitement of entrepreneurship, from the pages of theory into the realm of practicality,” Foster noted. (NB)