Minister of Energy and Business, Senator Lisa Cummins, has underscored the importance of entrepreneurship and the critical role it plays in Barbados.
And, Senator Cummins is firmly of the view that the island must now emerge as a business start-up nation, with people converting their “side hustle” to a business.
She made the comments on International Women’s Day on Wednesday night, as she participated in the Sisterhood Forum – the Balancing Act of Women in Business, at TEN Habitat, Wildey, St. Michael.
Senator Cummins and Shimona O’Neale of Ohara Consulting Services, were the local panellists, while Nekesa Were, Director of Community Medic, from Kenya, and Teasea Bennett, co-founder of Reve Jewellery and Accessories, from Jamaica, were online.
The Minister told her audience: “We have always had people who work their nine to five jobs and then simultaneously, on weekends, make pudding and souse, bake bread or wedding cakes, or engage in babysitting. They don’t have a brick and mortar store, but they are running a business on the side.
“So, what we now have to do is to formalise what people used to do as a side hustle or business, and encourage them to have those nine to five jobs and simultaneously be business owners. By doing this, it helps to then develop people’s income, and add to the amount of resources being circulated in the domestic economy because there’s more spend coming from individual households.”
Senator Cummins proffered the view that it was necessary to empower people to increase their earning capacity, and create businesses.
In highlighting the public sector, she said a number of employees were responsible for facilitating business and entrepreneurship, yet many of them had never started a business.
“So, the experience that comes from running a business and knowing what goes into cash flow management, pricing policies, and what clearances look like, those things also have an important role to play in business facilitation for us as a Government.
“If I don’t know what it is like to run a business, if I don’t understand the impact of not moving a matter through my own administrative responsibility, and how then that impacts on the business climate that I am responsible for facilitating, then I’m at a disadvantage,” she suggested.
Senator Cummins stressed that it is important to ensure the climate in which people do business is made easier, and added this is part of the overall ecosystem Barbados is trying to build.