FROM LEFT: Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce, Esworth Reid, Daniel Best, Director, Projects Department, Caribbean Development Bank and CTEP Manager, Troy Weekes as they engaged in light discussion following CTEP’s closing ceremony yesterday morning.
Small businesses told: Do your research!
Small businesses are being urged to engage in meaningful market research in order to grow their businesses.
This strong encouragement came from Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce, Esworth Reid, as he delivered remarks during the closing ceremony of the Caribbean Tech Entrepreneurship Programme Cohort 2, which took place at Accra Beach Hotel and Spa yesterday morning.
Reid reported that many micro, small and medium size enterprises in the Caribbean would have failed in the first two to four years of start-up, or sooner, due to complacency and the lack of engagement in meaningful marketing research and development, which he believes would have helped them to be competitive in a global marketplace where small unequals as themselves were forced to compete with powerful businesses from North America and Asia.
“A lesson I urge you to learn is that there is no enterprise that is too small to engage in meaningful research. It is so for the one man who works from home and it is so for the small businesses that employs 25 persons or less,” he said.
“Research only calls for you as a small entrepreneur seeking the relevant information on factors that may tend to affect your business or that may enable you to anticipate and take affective action to mitigate against any likely negative impact.
“Moreover, no enterprise today, micro, small, medium or large, should see themselves as competing in a local or regional marketplace. With the onset of globalisation, all market boundaries have been eroded and all enterprises, micro, small, medium and large from across the globe must now compete in an overall global market space.”
He went on to note that many micro and small enterprises in the region have let their guard down in the area of research and as such, have gone out of business.
It is against this backdrop that he believes that it may be worthwhile for these small businesses in the region, if they are looking to compete effectively in this aggressive and dynamic global market, to look and learn from their competitor rather than fear them.