Chief Executive Officer of the Small Business Association (SBA) Senator Dr Lynette Holder is throwing out a challenge to all Barbadians to support small businesses as they continue to struggle to stay afloat.
Her call comes as several of these businesses shared sobering stories of how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their operations.
“These are serious times. You have heard it time and time again, the impact of COVID-19 on our economy and by extension on our small business sector, has been severe, but I believe if we work together as a community we can get through this,” Holder told a virtual launch of Small Business Week 2020 on Friday.
“We are calling all of our patrons to help us. We need enabling legislation, policies and programming, access to financing that can build capacity and provide the much needed capital and support. We need you the consuming public to make that deliberate choice to support small businesses,” she said.
This year, the SBA is going fully virtual with its hosting of the 17th annual Small Business Week, which will take place from September 20 to 26 under the theme The Era of Digital Disruption – Thinking Beyond the Box.
The week will kick off with a church service on September 20, streamed from the St George Parish church. On Tuesday, the State of the Sector Conference will take place and this will be followed by the Youth Forum on Wednesday and the annual general meeting on Thursday.
The curtain will close on the week of activities with the annual award ceremony on Friday, September 25. All the events will be held virtually.
“We recognised that at this time we have to think not outside the box, but beyond it. We have to go even further – think creatively, think innovatively, consider what is the new paradigm that will help us to ensure we harness all that will be needed for our MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) to survive,” said Holder.
She said despite the deleterious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the small business sector and the economy, the SBA was committed to hosting its week of activities.
“Small businesses across our country are suffering, they are challenged with ‘how do I survive this global pandemic’? It is because of this that we remain committed to bringing the week of activities this year to ensuring that we can lead that national dialogue on what are the solutions that we need to employ to help ensure our MSME sector can survive this time,” said Holder.
During Friday’s launch, several business owners shared how the pandemic has been impacting on their operations.
Gloria Williams, operator of Gloria’s Eatery in Baxter’s Road, St Michael, said during her 32 years of operating at the location she has never experienced such a deep negative impact on her business.
“We have had to change our hours of operation because we are trying to attract the lunch time crowd, but we are primarily a night-time operation. We have also had to reduce staff. The thing is that with all this reduction the overheads remain the same,” she said.
Stating that people were not spending like they used to because they simply did not have the disposable income, Williams said it was extremely difficult to stay afloat.
However, quickly pointing out that she expected the pandemic to become the new normal, Williams said she was hoping for the best and hoping that there would be no more island shutdowns since that would cause her to go out of business.
Meanwhile, Stephen Ollivierre, Managing Director of Sentry Insurance Brokers Ltd said the pandemic had impacted his business both positively and negatively.
“Like most other businesses we have seen a fall-off in billings and we have seen clients cut the level and the volume of insurance they buy. We have seen them cancel policies, we have seen closures and many of them have asked for extended premium payment terms,” he said.
“On the positive side, we have learned to combat that fall-off in revenue by becoming a little more efficient. We have cut some operating costs, we have embraced digital media a bit more for example, a lot of emailing of invoices and documentation and online payments and use of social media for advertising,” explained Ollivierre.
He said the company has been able to maintain its full staff complement of 17, adding that “at this time “we are holding firm”.
One of the organisations providing support for the Small Business Week is the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA).
Officer in Charge Anthony Bradshaw said the MSME sector in the region continued to fight for survival as the pandemic persists.
Adding that they have been thrust into a severe cash flow crisis, Bradshaw said this was the most significant challenge they now face.
However, he said the difficult environment had created an opportunity for entrepreneurs to re-engineer themselves, adding that the CEDA was keen to provide assistance and had therefore launched a new grant funding programme in collaboration with the European Union.
“The agency reaffirms its commitment to the regional private sector and will continue to work with its strategic partners such as the SBA to ensure the programmes redound to the success of the SME sector,” said Bradshaw.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)
