BUSINESSPEOPLE have been urged to think beyond the small business mentality and to move their entities to the next stage.
The challenge has come from chief executive officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS), James Paul, who is of the opinion that many small business people in Barbados seem content to remain small.
Speaking after a tour of the Agrofest exhibition in Queen’s Park, with Minister with responsibility for Rural Development Denis Kellman and the top brass of the Rural Development Commission, Paul said manufacturers and farmers were not only robbing themselves of future opportunities, but were failing to help the island’s economy as well.
The BAS officer said there was the mentality, among small business owners, that they needed to remain small in order “to get what is there”.
“They don’t see that they have to have the ability to grow in order to make their businesses stronger. You cannot be satisfied, after ten years of operation, to just operate in your kitchen,” he said.
“You need to think I have to get out of my kitchen and contribute more,” Paul told members of the media.
He lauded officials of the Rural Development Commission for bringing “new clients into the process” which, he said, was important, because the island needed the kind of businessperson who “wants to grow, who wants to take his product even further and who wants to earn foreign exchange for Barbados”.
“We need businesses that are going to step up and help lift the economy. You cannot help it being small,” he charged.
“Businesses in Barbados need to stop limiting themselves. People need to stop thinking that the only place you can go is in the kitchen garden or that I must only operate from home because that does not create the type of employment that Barbados needs.”
Meanwhile, Paul expressed pleasure with this year’s agricultural exhibition and the crowds which descended on Queen’s Park.
He again stressed there was no intention to move it from its central “one-bus location”.
Hundreds of patrons flocked to Queen’s Park over the weekend to hunt for bargains on local fruits, vegetables and ground provisions.
The livestock show drew large crowds of onlookers as farmers brought their prized bulls and cows to be judged. The bucking bronco was again a hit with the children, as were the petting zoo, the guinea pigs and the many varieties of birds.
