A MASTER CLASS for entrepreneurs was recently conducted by hotel magnate Gordon Butch Stewart when he addressed the finalists in the business reality show Bank on Me. His deep and successful experience as an entrepreneur informed his comments.
This was just as well since there is an old expression that one cannot buy experience over a shop counter.
One trusts that the wisdom of his experience has been absorbed on all sides, for being an entrepreneur is one of the more important contributions one can make to society.
The would-be entrepreneur soon discovers that the harsh reality of adequate financing confronts him or her as the business grows. So that Mr Stewart’s address to the finalists was at once a learning experience not only for the finalists but also for those institutions who finance such start up ventures. He spoke from a fund of experience!
He declared to the aspiring entrepreneurs that maintaining cash flow was a critical objective. While this observation might seem to be obvious, it needs to be stressed that young businesses are vulnerable to cash flow problems. Without cash flow these young ventures might wither on the vine and fold.
When one considers that successful businesses can provide employment for the owner and his employees, the wisdom of the point should not be lost on those who wish to bring about improvement in the society, because ownership of an enterprise gives the entrepreneur a steak in the country and enhances economic democracy.
Local business man Rawle Brancker also spoke at the function which was held at Savannah hotel. He too stressed the importance of adequate funding for all businesses whether at start up stage or otherwise, and he specifically called on commercial banks to support small businesses in these difficult economic times. He too was talking from hard experience!
We endorse the view that financing houses should be sensitive to the problems caused by recessionary times; for much more is at stake than the fate of the individual business or the loss of capital put into the venture by those brave enough to invest.
There is a wide public interest in every business venture started in any country anywhere, since the survival and prosperity of each such venture enhances the society as a whole. That is why a heavy responsibility rests on the shoulders of the captains of industry whose wise decisions are immensely beneficial to the society.
On the other hand, wrong calls or unwise judgment may spark and start a crisis as detrimental as the housing mortgage crisis of recent times.
Financial support is therefore an important ingredient in business success, and while profit must be the bottom line for our financial institutions, keen attention has to be paid to the entrepreneurial age of the society.
It is only less than 50 years ago that we escaped from the iron clutch of colonialism, and while we must not bear our history as a yoke around the neck; financing techniques suited to and used elsewhere cannot always be the solution in a young business and investment climate which is as risk averse as our society appears to be.