BIDC Business Catalyst 6 #3.indd 1 12/21/10 3:17:07 PM

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Entrepreneur’s Forum Entrepreneurship 101 When Curtis Padmore ventured into entrepreneurship, he admits it was something he knew very little about. He was however determined to succeed and pursued it he said “with gusto”. He shared some of the lessons he learnt along the way with the Barbados Business Catalyst. 1. You really need some form of business know-how. 2. It helps to pursue something you’re passionate about and that fits more into your personality. 3. Planning is critical. You need to know how you will acquire and use resources. 4. Refine your raw business plan into more specific details and be strategic. It’s like a game of chess. You not only have to make the right moves but look at future strategies and outcomes. 5. Take a look at the human resources available and be open to utilising the skills of others. 6. Look at what assistance Government offers. It means taking time out from your bread and butter activities but it is critical to development of the company. 7. Your own personal will to persevere is important. The journey is not only for the swift. 8. Exercise patience especially when collaborating with other agencies. 9. Plan for a timeline but anticipate some delays. 10. Manage with humility. 11. Learn to recognise an opportunity and seize it. 12. Be imaginative but if it doesn’t make dollars it doesn’t make sense. 12 Barbados Business Catalyst • July - September 2010
Going Online Spinning your Web By Pedro Hutchinson To survive in these challenging economic times, companies need to identify niche markets and secure strategic advantages. While this is especially important for large companies, it is vital for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The resource constraints that these types of companies face require that they be extremely diligent in their choices of products and markets. Failure to give adequate due diligence will result in the failure of their operations. MSMEs cannot afford to compete on volume and are unable to benefit from the kinds of economies of scale that accrue to large corporations. However, they perform key functions within markets and can prosper if they realise and exploit their competitive advantages, and the resources available to them – one of them being the Internet. A Web presence is essential for MSMEs in the current environment. Effective exploitation of Internet opportunities will allow MSMEs to: • Make it easier for people to find them • Maintain contact with their clients • Identify and target new clients • Market their goods and services at a fraction of the cost • Keep abreast of existing and upcoming trends • Compete effectively in local, regional and international markets and • Conserve resources in routinely delivering the same content Many Web-based opportunities currently exist for MSMEs with the appropriate skills and ambition. These range from the development of web-sites, social networking media and applications that restrict content to specific needs of users, to the use of these same forms of media in the marketing strategies of companies. Web-sites ought to be a basic plank of each company’s marketing strategy. They may also be a valuable source of revenue as the demand increases for web-site development. While there are a number of do-it-yourself web-site development programmes on the market, appealing to customers will require ingenuity and creativity. It is imperative that web-sites also offer e-commerce facilities, thereby allowing for 24-hour business activity and ease of payment for customers. Social networking affords MSMEs the opportunity to connect with customers that share similar interests, especially as they relate to their goods and services. Search engines are able to isolate those persons in a social network whose tastes and preferences identify with the goods and services being offered. Social media profiles are a wealth of valuable information for the producer and allow companies to use an individual’s social graph match with that of its own to its competitive advantage. For MSMEs, this must become standard business behavior. MSMEs must realise that, with the volume of content on the Internet, it is time-consuming for users to take time to sift through it all to locate just what they need. Researchers, information seekers and general users are growing wary of the lengths of time required to conduct searches and favour applications that carry out this function and send the content directly to their mobile devices. Consideration ought to be given to this trend in the development of their products. Including these types of application facilities as part of their content strategies will offer additional revenue-generating opportunities to MSMEs. Having an online presence is an important tool to help expose your product/service to a large number of people at a relatively low cost. While increased exposure does not automatically guarantee your elevation to the best seller list; no exposure will almost certainly guarantee a flop. Attaining prominent visibility on-line is not particularly easy. Creating your own web site, while important, is not likely to result in a meaningful amount of traffic, in a short period of time. So what can you do to reap the advantages of having an on-line presence? It is well known that a spider uses its web to trap its prey and store it after capture. What is not well known is that spiders are extremely conscientious in their choice of location for the web and as well as its size. MSMEs would likely benefit by doing likewise, given their size and resources. Barbados Business Catalyst • July - September 2010 13
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