Now is the perfect time to start a business, a University of the West Indies academic said today as an entrepreneur boot camp was launched at the Cave Hill campus.
Acting chief executive officer of the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management, Dr Justin Robinson said Barbados’ low level of taxation should serve as impetus for aspiring business owners.
“I want the message to go out there that this is an excellent time to be looking at going into business in Barbados.
“Barbados has one of the lowest corporation tax rates in the world at this time, you don’t pay any taxes on capital gains.
“So as an investor and entrepreneur Barbados has to be one of the most tax-friendly places to incorporate your business in the world at this particular point of time.”
Dr Robinson, who is also the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, said Barbados needed more entrepreneurs as well as new businesses.
“We need new Caribbean companies, we need new businesses, we need new sources of economic growth. There is a lot of anxiety and frustration in Caribbean society and I think part of it is we are all fighting over the same pie.
“Everyone is trying to get a bigger slice of the same pie and in some way a shrinking pie. What we want to focus on really is growing that pie so that there is more for everybody and everyone can get without anybody else getting less, but to do that you need new ideas, new products, new services and new businesses.”
Entrepreneur Christopher Harper, one of the facilitators, explained that there was a need for would-be businesspeople to think differently.
He said while he had organised similar programmes with adults with much success, he was excited at the opportunity to educate younger people.
Manager of the Government’s Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme Selma Green revealed that YES is offering scholarships to 12 people who had successfully completed an element of the recently launched Building Blocks programme.
The five-week long boot camp at the School of Business is to be held from July 9 to August 15, catering to a maximum of 40 young people between the ages of 16 and 21.
It is being held in conjunction with the University of the West Indies, Goddard Enterprises and the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation.
With a course fee of $300, the foundation is offering financial assistance to a limited number of entrants, said Marjorie Wharton, the director of Strategic Business Services at the School of Business.
