‘Missing out’

A United States-based academic says local entrepreneurs and small businesses are missing out on numerous networking opportunities from the Welcome Stamp Programme, and has called on authorities to create a formal structure for them to make the best of those prospects.

Dr Ebony A. Utley, Professor of Communication Studies and an Associate Director for the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, who came to Barbados through the programme in 2021, lamented that the initiative has no portal to encourage business links.

The 12-month Welcome Stamp Programme was introduced in July 2020 to give people from other countries the opportunity to work remotely on the island.

Although praising the initiative, Dr Utley told Barbados TODAY: “If you have people from around the world with different networks and connections that are interacting with the local entrepreneurs, maybe those connections would be sufficient to find someone who might be interested in investing or find someone who could be an ambassador for your product on a different continent potentially.

“So far, I have not found in the research that that is happening the way, in my opinion, it should and could be happening if we really took advantage of all the different experiences.”

Dr Utley, who is also an Honourary Fellow in Entrepreneurship at Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management at The University of the West Indies, is currently conducting a local study on how entrepreneurs handled the COVID-19 pandemic between March 2020 and March 2022.

She further revealed that from her conversations with local business owners, they were concerned about the lack of investment locally and from outside Barbados’ shores.

While acknowledging that this is not a new problem in entrepreneurship, Dr Utley said the absence of a formal structure within the Welcome Stamp Programme was a missed opportunity for small business owners to network with visitors working remotely on the island.

“There needs to be a formalised exchange…. Maybe it’s just a website with a database where it [shows you] these are the people who are on the island right now, these are their skill sets… maybe it’s an app with a profile directory so that people can connect that way, or maybe it’s in-person, face-to-face meetups that happen once a month and maybe each meetup is industry-based. So, maybe there is one for researchers and academics, maybe there is one for food service, maybe there is one for technology,” recommended Dr Utley, who is also founder of the Social Justice Entrepreneurship Programme at California State University, Long Beach.

“The whole point is to network internationally [but] locally because that is the beauty of the Welcome Stamp, but right now there isn’t structure for that. Right now, I’ve been interviewing local entrepreneurs, but I’ve also been interviewing black expat [expatriate] entrepreneurs and almost all of them have told me ‘I am here, I am more than willing and ready to share my expertise’.”

In its last update on the Welcome Stamp Programme, the Government said that as of July 31, 2022, there were 3 784 applications of which 2 417 were approved.

It disclosed that people applying under the programme worked in fields such as: human resources; health science; architecture and construction; information technology; agriculture, food and natural resources; education and training; public administration, and marketing, sales and services.

Local entrepreneurs interested in participating in Dr Utley’s survey, can email their interest to ebony.utley@csulb.edu or call 246-835-6772.

shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb