SCORES OF ENTREPRENEURS have been warned of the pitfalls that befall small businesses, and told of the successes that can be achieved if the correct approaches were used.
The information was given during a heart-to-heart session with about 70 professionals last Wednesday at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
It was the first in the business success series This Is My Story organised by Scotiabank in collaboration with the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation.
The interactive session was punctuated with emotional stories of some of the problems that plagued Dereck Foster, co-founder and chairman of Automotive Art; Corey McClean, creative director of Sips Smoothie Bar; David Simpson, managing director of Prestige Accounting Inc.; and winner of the 2015 edition of the entrepreneurship reality television series Bank On Me Sean Carter, founder and managing director of Rhema Cooling
Simpson cautioned entrepreneurs about how they approached financing.
“The right type of finance at the right time is very critical. I know traditionally in Barbados if you want finance for anything you run to the bank . . . but one of the issues that leads to failure is the wrong type of finance,” he said.
“Getting that bank loan too early, signing a commitment to pay $2 000 or whatever it is every month before you have revenue coming in on a consistent basis is going to be an issue . . . so you can do like Corey did and start with friends and family and borrowing equipment which would be better,” he said.
The discussion was led by Carter, who explained that he initially had no idea what he wanted to do.
“It was a dream to be an entrepreneur,” he said. He, like most of the other entrepreneurs on the panel, recalled having to borrow money from family and friends in the preliminary stages of their business.
“It’s been an exciting journey, entrepreneurship somes borders on insanity,” he said, adding that the vision had to be clear for everyone involved in the business.
As for what he considered to be success, he described it as “flowing like a well-oiled machine without me being there, at the same time keeping the family life intact”.
Carter credited Bank On Me for giving him a crash course in running a business, and, for established entrepreneurs, reinforced what they already knew.
Simpson started his business at home. After having to travel to Trinidad for training, he realised there was an opportunity to develop a niche in the area.
“It’s been a learning experience from day one,” he said, as he recalled encountering typical challenges that befall small businesses such as access to finance and marketing. As a result, he focussed on word of mouth.
For Foster, the secret to Automotive Art’s success was to recruit, train and motivate people that fit the company’s culture. Leadership and management, he stressed, must go hand in hand.
Joining the engaging conversation was McClean, the owner of Sips, who recalled toying with several ideas he thought were innovative before ditching them. It was while he was working with a relative and needed a drink that he got the idea of making smoothies.
One of the questions posed to the panelists was how they managed to succeed given that most small businesses failed within the first year.
Simpson responded, in part, that the focus was meeting the demands of customers and a determination not to fail.
“Often times you have to prove to yourself that you can make it work even if others did not believe,” he said.
The panellists also spoke of the need to have a strong support structure, including family members, and advised against being surrounded by negative people.
At the end of the discussion, Foster reaffirmed that Automotive Art, which first opened its doors at Wildey, St. Michael and now has outlets in nine countries, has no intention of moving its headquarters from Barbados. (WILLCOMM)