Small and micro business owners must move beyond trade and diversify to include manufacturing. This was the main message from Jamaica Business Development Council representative Garth Soares at a Nov. 6 workshop for Rockfort’s business community. “There are too many people trading, he said, adding that which sparked a lively discussion amongst attendees.
“Subsistence businesses simply don’t provide for the individual,” he said during a workshop hosted by Youth Opportunities Unlimited and the Rockfort Business Development Council. Attendees, who included a dress-maker, cornershop owner and hairdresser, also heard a presentation from the Jamaica International Insurance Company and discussed challenges facing small business owners.
The session was held at the Windward Road Reverence For Life Centre in Rockfort and hosted by Samuels Buchanan.
“We want to ensure that people have the necessary skills,” said YOU Deputy Executive Director Cush Lewis. YOU has been working in Rockfort for the past eight months as part of a project that is funded by the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica.
The project includes training in how to better equip the community in the event of a disaster like a hurricane or a flood. To date, the project has seen 130 young people being sensitized to these issues, and more than 30 received training in CPR.
The first presentation, from Rachel McKenley and Merkhan Johnson of JIIC, instructed people about what kind of insurance they require as small business owners. “Insurance is like a parachute, if you don’t have it when you need it, you may never need it again,” McKenley said. She made the point that insurance is legally required and gave the following examples of things that are impacted: cash on premises, moving money, employee dishonesty and employee safety.
Johnson also discussed micro-finance, which is a relatively new concept. It is especially useful for low-income business owners, said Johnson. “It is a mini way of insuring and can reach anybody, but it is not necessarily for middle or upper-class incomes,” he said.
In addition, this type of insurance doesn’t just protect “tangible” items. “You can insure not necessarily yourself but your livelihood,” he added. This type of micro insurance requires small premium payments proportionate to likelihood and cost of the risk involved.
The workshop will with certainty continue, as the business owners had many questions related to insurance and other issues. But what they lacked in knowledge, they do not lack in passion or ideas, and hopefully this will continue to serve them well in their bid for financial security.
