Drive development by using local products - educator urges businesses

EDUCATOR JAMES Walsh, principal of Brown's Town Community College, has challenged small entrepreneurs to carefully explore the business opportunities that can be created by using more local products and materials.

Walsh, who was speaking at a JN Small Business Loans Limited town-hall meeting in St Ann's Bay recently, said finding innovative ways to use local material would create opportunities for not only small entrepreneurs, but also improve the Jamaican economy.

"We should start with what we have," he advised small business operators, pointing out that, "We often try to make our businesses dependent on what we don't have; and what we need to do is to create businesses and employ strategies that draw upon what we have."

The event was the second in a series of meetings being held by JNSBL to stimulate the production of micro enterprises; encourage expansion; and influence 'best practices' in its drive to influence the continued growth of small businesses.

37.6 per cent of jobs

It is noted that the expanding micro- and small-business sector accounts for more than 37.6 per cent of the employed in Jamaica, according to the Planning Institute of Jamaica.

Speaking to the critical importance of the sector, Walsh encouraged the operators not to view their enterprises simply, "as micro businesses, but as entities" that contribute to a "bigger picture", and he told them the story of how some workers on a construction site saw their efforts.

"These men were breaking stones on a site, he related, and they were asked, 'What are you doing?' Most of the men replied, 'We are breaking stones'. However, one man responded, 'I am building a cathedral'."

"That man," Walsh explained, "saw the end product." And, similarly, he told the micro business persons that, "When you go to your shop and buy your stock, see that there is an end product, which is even bigger, and then you will be able to achieve great success!"

He pointed to Jamaicans who have excelled, in spite of their humble beginnings, such as National Hero Marcus Garvey; reggae superstars Bob Marley and Burning Spear; and track-and-field legend, Usain Bolt. He said, while micro entrepreneurs are members of the working class, they should not allow themselves to be constrained by this status. "The people who have had the greatest impact on the world have always been people like us," he underscored.