You Are Reading Vol. 01 Issue. 14 November, 2013 Edition
Building Networks ;Creating Wealth
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE BARBADOS
Pride, Industry and Unity Eight (8) new members were inducted into the membership of Small Business Association in November.
The companies were welcomed into the Association by Business Operations Manager Ms. Andrea Taylor after which they were presented with their membership packages by the CEO Ms. Lynette Holder who also gave them a brief history of the organisation. During her address, the CEO reminded the new members that unity was strength and coupled with numbers, allowed the Association over the past 30 years to represent the micro, small and medium enterprises. She noted that “as an association of members,
networking and the sharing of ideas is one of the keys to growing our individual businesses”.
Members were advised to keep abreast of what was going on in the Association by paying attention to the email blasts, website and by attending members meetings. CEO Lynette Holder (second from left) with proud new members of the The new Small Business Association members are A O Consulting Services, Boyceterous Catamaran Paradigm NEEMA Building and Cruises, The Spa Lounge and Consultants & Associates Maintance Services, Dixon Building and Services. Inc, JTS B2B Services Inc, D.C. Office People Inc,
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SBA President: Don’t Give Up! Healthy and robust discussions followed the presentation of the Board of Directors’ and Treasurer’s reports at the 20th Annual General Meeting of the SBA held on Tuesday November 26th at the Small Business Development Centre. SBA President Dalton Medford, addressing the members present noted that the SBA had a very successful year despite the
challenges and contraction in revenue because of the economic condition. He encouraged members not to “throw up” their hands in the air but to get on with the work of building their businesses noting, “we should pray, but pray is not enough, we still have to get up and do the work” In delivering the Treasurer’s report, outgoing director Mr. Michael Homer noted that
the SBA was able to carry out a number of projects despite reduced income from traditional sources. He encouraged members to do their part by remaining financial, supporting the initiatives and taking part in the activities.
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Persons who wish to access the Annual Report should visit the SBA’s website at www.sba.bb to download a copy
REACH THE SBA HEAD OFFICE
1 Pelican Industrial Park, Bridgetown, Barbados Phone:
(246) 228-0162
Fax:
(246) 228-0613
Email:
theoffice@sba.bb
Website:
www.sba.bb
NEW MEMBERS ADDED TO SBA BOARD SBA MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
AO Consulting Services is a new consultancy service, which aims to have a three-fold purpose. It sets out to provide confidential, specialized sexual health management and HIV/ AIDS counseling and testing, health project consultancy and sessional nursing services. Their aim is to provide specialized, personalized, confidential, quality care tailored to the clients specific needs in a timely manner. The Sessional Nursing service is tailored to the specific requirements of the client eg. Number of hours and what skills might be required of the nurse and location. Home visits can be arranged. Sessional nurse skills available to the clients include: •General nursing skills •Basic Life Support & Anaphylaxis •Venepuncture & cannulation, •ECG monitoring •Assessing and dressing minor wounds including gluing, removal of sutures •Male and female catheterization Sexual Health and HIV/ AIDS This service operate with appointments and provide the following: •Testing of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS counseling and testing. •Microscopy for immediate detection and treatment of infections including non-STIs eg. Contact them for further information by email: aosborne736@gmail.com or (246)-2434186
http://m.aoconsultingservices.com
SBA Outlook Newsletter
November, 2013
Three members were elected to serve on the Board of the Small Business Association for the 2013-2015 period, at the recently held 20th Annual General Meeting are
Vice- President – Gayle Headley-Lowe Treasurer – Adlai Stevenson Secretary – Paul Clarke Director – Margaret Hoyte Director – Dr. Roland Clarke
Post of Vice President Ms. Gayle Headley-Lowe (Executive Director of Intimate Hotels) Post of Treasurer Mr. Adlai Stevenson – (Chief Executive Officer of Exclusive Cottons of the Caribbean Inc). Post of Director Dr. Roland Clarke – Treasurer (Consultant and Managing Mr. Adlai Stevenson Partner of Clarke Energy Associates) The full Board comprises Asst. Secretary/Treasurer – Hugh McClean President – Dalton Medford
Vice President Ms. Gayle Headley-Lowe
Director Dr. Roland Clarke
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The SBA membership welcomes the new the Board of Directors
REGISTER FOR SME SMART If you are a member of the SBA or you own a registered small business and wish to take part in the Be SME Smart campaign to push local small businesses then you need to contact us. The campaign is designed to encourage local consumers to support small businesses. Consumers will be provided with information on the
businesses and given a loyalty card to gain discounts and rewards at participating businesses. Businesses taking part in the promotion will be promoted across the SBA network and given free promotion on www.sba.bb. To register for this promotion please contact theoffice@sba. bb or by calling 228-0162
A new feature on the SBA’s website is the “Jobs Board”. Members of the Small business Association and other interested businesses will be given the opportunity to advertise for free on this section of the site any jobs they have available. This promotion will last for 3 months starting November 2013 until January 2014.
service being offered Business Operations Manager Andrea Taylor stated that SBA members continued to expand their businesses and were always looking for new employees. The Jobs Board would allow them to post available jobs for the general public and would be offered eventually at a very reasonable cost to members and partners.” She noted that eventually the Association would include additional features to this section including the ability for members of the public to upload CVs and job letters which would be sent
directly to the employer.
members of the Association can also register on the site but will have limited access.
attention only as well as being able to interact with the SBA electronically.
Members will be able to access among other things documents and notices that are for their
If you require further information please contact theoffice@sba.bb or by calling 228-0162
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ADVERTISE JOBS FREE
Interested persons and businesses should contact the Association at the earliest opportunity to take advantage of the offer. In explaining this additional
Ms. Taylor also noted that sometimes companies did not want to be bombarded with phone calls based on advertised openings and “we will be moving very quickly to offer a service which protects the identity of the advertiser if this was required”.
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The SBA website (www.sba.bb) is quickly growing in audience and already a number of persons are using the site for research purposes
REGISTER ON WWW.SBA.BB
All members of the SBA and the public are invited to register on www.sba.bb. Association members will have unlimited access to exclusive member pages with content that is only available to members. Non-
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SBA FOCUS ON WOMEN & ENTREPRENEURSHIP The SBA was very pleased once again to take part in the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2013, which ran from November 18-22. As part of the week of activities the Association focused on the females in the SME sector and in partnership with Girlfriends’ Expo 2014 collaborated to host the “Show, Sell Succeed” Seminar and Workshop.
SBA CEO Ms. Lynette Holder noted in her address to the participants that there were still some real challenges faced by women in business and chief among these was accessing finance. She also noted that women entrepreneurs made up only 35% of the SBA’s membership and this was a percentage she hope to see increased in the near future.
The workshop brought a number of professional and entrepreneurial women (and male) to participate in lively discussion with expert moderators on the various issues related to growing
Continuing on theme of developing women entrepreneurs and as part of its continued outreach and development of the entrepreneurial mindset among the Nation’s youth, the SBA through the GEW also made a presentation on entrepreneurship to the Hindsbury Primary School Coordinator of Girlfriends’ Expo, Kimtara Clarke, as part of the making a point to participants “From Nursery to Boardroom” category. project. All participating schools The SBA congratulates the young were given a mystery women of the Hindsbury Primary item (this year a School on their achievement and plastic bag) to be commends them on their innovative and developed by students entrepreneurial spirit. and transformed into The SBA remains committed to the something of greater development of the entrepreneurial value. culture among Barbadian youth through Ellerton Primary the Association’s flagship youth School was adjudged the winner and entrepreneurial programme Enterprise the Hindsbury Primary School placed in Action” second in the competition in the
and succeeding in business including; networking, marketing, social media to name a few.
Independence
today is centered on finding a strong Wi-Fi connection to allow them to text and surf. So while we once again get all nostalgic about the good old days, let us ensure that our youth understand that But life was LAST WORD not a bed of FROM THE CEO there were real struggles being experienced by roses back their grandparents and then either. great grandparents. And, let us also ensure that There was the great they understand that we depression of the 1930’s, overcame those issues one the riots of 1937 borne after the other through out of a situation where cooperation, solidarity and people were marginalised careful planning. and disenfranchised, sections of our society It is ironic that in this living in fear with the year, fourteen Caribbean proliferation of canefield countries that once murders, the mass exodus sustained the slave of labour from Barbados economy are once again to other climes to secure making a push (as futile employment and to feed as it appears) to receive families back home or reparations. England simply to find a better life, already paid compensation and the oil crisis of the over the abolition of 1970’s. There was poverty the slave trade to slave and the daily struggle by owners, not their victims. families to survive. No, it British Foreign secretary wasn’t all wine and roses. William Hague however Some of our children has urged all to get over don’t even know what a the “post colonial guilt”, pit latrine is, bless their going further to say “we little hearts. Their hardship
but not Independent Bajans have a saying that goes “give jack he jacket”. Put simply, what is for you, you will get. Whether this holds true may depend on a variety of factors such as how hard you work for it, how loud you remonstrate for it or how blessed/lucky you happen to be. In this 47th year of Independence for Barbados, we tend to get a bit nostalgic as we waxed eloquently about the days of old. What life was like back then? If we allow all of this eloquence to overwhelm us we would leave the younger generation with the feeling that life was a bed of roses back then. We, like many, tend to look back longingly and lovingly on the positives.
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do not see reparations as the answer.” Essentially he is saying that reparation will not happen. It is unlikely that Caribbean people will forget that period of our history anytime soon. You tend not to forget the bad things. During this time when nationalism is at an emotional high, let us remember that while we as a country have Independence, we do not seek to be independent of each other but to strive to be interdependent as the ultimate form of maturity as a sovereign state. Therefore let us push on with the job of building our country TOGETHER as we have done tirelessly and impressively over the past 47 years, so that this generation and the next can look back with fondness on these ‘good old days’.
Happy Independence Barbados!
The Small Business Association (SBA) is the island’s non-governmental, non-profit representative body for micro, small and medium enterprises. The SBA seeks to expand business opportunities for its members, provide educational and developmental services and lobby to ensure an enabling environment for the growth and sustainability of the SME sector. For more information on the work of the Small Business Association, please visit our website: http://www.sba.bb SBA Outlook Newsletter
November, 2013