With many companies in the sector struggling to survive, the umbrella body for Barbados’ smallest businesses has entered 2014 on the hunt for additional sources of funding.
When the Small Business Association’s (SBA) last financial year concluded at the end of June last year, the body had a $51 728 surplus, having kept its expenses in check. But president Dalton Medford said the 2012 to 2013 period was “challenging . . . due to a decrease in membership income, further reduction in Government financial support and a decline in funding opportunities from traditional donor agencies”.
In a board of directors report bearing his signature and carried in the SBA’s recently released 2013 annual report, the official said this year his organization intended to “look to more cost-effective methods to deliver its services and to creative income-generating activities to realize financial sustainability”.
“The forecast for 2013-2014 suggests that the macroeconomic situation will continue as per the current year, characterized by no growth and a growing fiscal deficit. Major foreign exchange-earning sectors are also projected to be on the decline and the cost of doing business is expected to increase owing to rising fuel prices and other raw materials,” he said.
“The SME [small and medium enterprises] sector must therefore continue to explore more innovative ways to do business and to be sustainable.
“The strategies of business development in the ensuing year must be grounded in the use of technology to reduce the cost of business and to be more efficient, and models that include clusters and value chain integration to maximize on economies of scale and scope. The SBA will continue its focus on programmes that build capacity and the provision of education to enhance the skills of business owners.”
Medford said that as a major part of plans to ensure an efficient SBA and “due to the significance of income generation to the association and the ability to realize financial sustainability”, the board “appointed a fund-raising team to review proposals and identify projects that could be explored to support the financial effectiveness of the secretariat”.
“Key projects were identified during the period that would be rolled out during the new financial year. Additionally, the board undertook a comprehensive review of the association’s by-laws to ensure that the legal apparatus was in place to fully support the kind of transparency and credibility needed for the present and future,” he noted.
“In light of the many corporate failures and issues of stakeholder confidence, the directors commissioned the review and revision to the by-laws to enhance the policy space for better interaction with members, relationship among officers and to provide the opportunity for full participation of members in the governance of their association. Following this process, members will be asked at a special meeting in the new financial year to determine the proposed by-law amendments,” Medford added.
With 2014 expected to be another difficult year, the SBA spokesman saw a need for greater collaboration between small business “stakeholders to do better and more effective business for the benefit of the sector”.
“Small businesses by nature are nimble and resilient, traits that will be needed for the future as the nation and region continue towards recovery from the current prolonged recession. This is the time for SMEs to be re-energized and to be repositioned for growth, and the SBA will continue in this vein to assist the sector to realize the sustainable development needed at the firm and national levels,” he said. (SC)
