MSME Road Show Opens with Business Boot Camp for Entrepreneurs

For many small business owners, having a good product is only one part of the challenge. The harder part is often figuring out how to market it, manage the money, go digital and eventually grow beyond the local market. That is the gap BELTRAIDE says it is trying to close with the third edition of its National MSME Road Show, which opened its Belize City leg today at the Civic Center. The three-day event is bringing business support services directly to entrepreneurs, with boot camp-style sessions on e-commerce, digital marketing, financial literacy and exporting. Organizers say those topics were not chosen at random. They came from business owners themselves, who have been asking for practical training and resources to help them formalize, expand and compete in a changing economy.

 

Jorge Gentle, Manager, Small Businesses Development Center

“We strategically designed the program to have these trainings based on what are demands the participants that we’ve had over the many years that we’ve been facilitating trainings. So at the end of trainings, we usually take evaluations, and we would look at recommended topics. As well as strategically we look at topics that are trending, so introduction to e-commerce. Also a lot of participants are interested in finding out, or at least knowing about export as well, so we strategically have that. And accounting, you can’t go without financial literacy. So those are some of the topics that we have. Ending the day, we also have some brief presentations by the Ministry of Rural Transformation speaking about the trade license regime, as well as the Belize Tax Service speaking about tax facts. So everything that you would want to know as a entrepreneur to be able to register, and some of the requirements, processes, and support.”

 

Ishmael Quiroz, Executive Director, BELTRAIDE

“A big thing that we’ve done differently this time around is really coordinating with our municipal authorities.  So in the case of Belize City, we’re coinciding the expo day of our MSME Roadshow activity with the City Council’s Super Sale, which happens on Saturday on the Albert Street here in Belize City and we’re expecting it to be big.”

 

Britney Gordon

“How many businesses would you estimate to have been impacted and helped through this Roadshow over the years that you’ve been doing?”

 

Ishmael Quiroz

“So for this year specifically, we are almost at six hundred businesses registered  on our, you know, for the activities. And we’ve had over one thousand two hundred come through the three days of the program to date this time around.”

 

The road show will continue with a formalization clinic, giving entrepreneurs direct access to government agencies, financial institutions and business support organizations.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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