Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation (BCCEC) Vice Chairman Randy Butler yesterday expressed confidence that the chamber’s recently launched Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) Help Desk would help spur renewed investment from local financial institutions in Bahamian small businesses.

Speaking with Guardian Business ahead of BCCEC’s SME Help Desk workshops yesterday, Butler noted that while the chamber initiative would likely eye investment from international organizations, including the Inter-American Development Bank and Caribbean Development Bank, re-instilling local investor confidence and attracting greater government assistance would remain priorities.

“I think the chamber’s goal is also to work with the government and commercial banks to say that we’ve got people that we’re training to develop small businesses and to help lessen the risk of investing.

“Building confidence is part of the plan. At the end of the day, the bank wants to know that you’ve considered the rate of return on the investment, that it is a profitable business and that it’s sustainable. The grants will look at sustainability but will also look at how these [small businesses] will be helping the country develop,” said Butler.

The SME Help Desk, officially launched on Tuesday, hopes to provide small business owners with advisory services, such as assistance drafting business plans and investment pitches and mentorship opportunities drawing from the chamber’s membership. However, the program will not provide funding to any businesses or entrepreneurs.

While Butler, the president and CEO of SkyBahamas, applauded the government’s $100,000 investment in the help desk initiative, he still questioned the government’s commitment to advancing Bahamian entrepreneurship, stating that the delays at Baha Mar illustrate the need for a healthy SME sector of the economy.

“I think it’s a great initiative by the chamber, and I also think that the government put money in this. It shows that at least the door is open for continuing the dialogue and I think it also indicates that the government appreciates that there is a need for promoting SMEs,” he said.

Butler urged current and aspiring small business owners utilizing the help desk’s services to take heed of the political, economic, social and technological (PEST) factors potentially inhibiting small businesses, along with “perceived and actual” levels of corruption within the country. However, reliable access to financing remains the major hurdle for stimulating SME growth, Butler said.

Aside from benefiting directly from the help desk’s services, Butler called on local SME owners to assist the chamber in lobbying with the government for future policies and regulations supporting small business development, particularly as it relates to financing.

Quick wins

With the SME Help Desk launched and focused on providing a sustainable platform for industry mentorship and other professional services, the BCCEC will likely direct some of its attention to address a series of “quick wins” increasing the ease of doing business, according to SME Division Chair Tara Morley-Nolan.

“The biggest issues that have been brought up by a lot of small businesses that we’ve been meeting with have been basic process and registration issues, whether it’s registering for your business license or NIB,” she said.

Morley-Nolan noted the recent progress made by the Department of Inland Revenue in making the business license registration and renewal process available online but believes that many bureaucratic hurdles remained firmly entrenched in the local economy.

However, one proposed chamber strategy could improve the ease of doing business by streamlining the way local businesses search for new talent.

The chamber has partnered with BahamasLocal.com to create a jobs board that would list available job openings in various sectors while also potentially allowing job hunters to directly submit applications to employers.

“There are so many talented people but the way of communicating when you have a position open is so backwards. The fact that the easiest way to communicate job positions in this country is still posting an ad in a newspaper just demonstrates that this could be facilitated a lot easier by bringing that online, so we’re working with BahamasLocal.com on creating a jobsite that would inform you that a job had been posted in your field, or for employers automatically messaging you that people had uploaded their resumes to the website for a position

While there is no current timeline for the project’s completion, Morley-Nolan noted that the framework of the project was largely completed.