NOT too many moons ago — during the Pindling era – young Bahamians were encouraged to aim to be entrepreneurs. Success meant owning ones own business and hiring others.
Again, shortsightedness and experience found the political leaders stumbling over their own ignorance of the business world. Bahamians would have been unique among mankind if they were all formed in the mould of an entrepreneur. But, let’s suppose for the sake of this argument that they all had these special skills to start their own businesses. Where would they find their workforce? A case of all chiefs, but no indians. Many thought it a bright idea. However, there were the pitfalls when young people were led to believe that they should not have to use their talents in an estabished business.
Today, when the public sector should step back and encourage the private sector to grow and create the needed jobs, a young Bahamian wrote us of his experience when he decided to step out on his own during the “own your own business” craze. His problem was that the bureaucracy could not accommodate him with a business licence because he was “thinking out of the box.”
Discouraged at every turn, he gave up the self-employment idea and now devotes his special talents on the staff of a business that he says he enjoys.
Here is his story as told in his own words:
It’s Better In The Bahamas – promising beginnings.
In my early working days I happened to be running a retail store for the family. One time when our phone went out, I kept calling and calling Batelco to get the line repaired. I would have to walk somewhere to use the phone to call as the phones at the store were not working. I generally called daily, sometimes multiple times a day. It took 45 days before the first repairman came through the front door of our store. In all, it took 58 days for phone service to be restored.
Later in my working life, I decided to start my own business. I had learned in my stint running the family store that I was probably not cut out to be a boss or manager so the plan was to keep it a small, one person company with me as the only employee.
I went down and applied for my business licence. There was a form to fill out which I did. If I recall correctly there was a line which asked for the nature of the business. (It may have asked for the category of the business but I think the wording was about the nature of the business). I filled in “Ideas, information, and information technology.”
The way I conceived of the business was that you could contract with me to supply you with original ideas which I would come up with. You could pay me to research the latest ideas of others. You could pay me for information I might have or that I would research for you. I could also be contracted to supply you with information technology, to install your information technology, to train you or your staff in the use of your information technology, to repair your information technology, etc.
“You can’t have a business license for that, we don’t have a category for it,” I was told.
I kid you not. There was no line for “other.” I was not allowed to have a business license for something that was not already a category on a pre-existing form. In other words, a Bahamian was not allowed to start a new business that had never been done before in a category that did not exist on the form at the time.
In other words: Innovation is not allowed here!
Later, I went down to set up my company’s National Insurance requirements. Now, not only had I learned that I had shortcomings in the managerial department, I had learned that I have times of disorganisation and procrastination. I knew that I would have trouble making regular monthly payments, not because I did not have the money to pay, not because I did not want to pay. No, I would have trouble simply because things would fall through the cracks on me at times. I had the thought that I should pay a year in advance and then I would not have as much to remember all the time. I was going to be paying the maximum. I was going to be the only employee of the company. I asked to be allowed to pay a year in advance.
No go. I was told that I could not pay my National Insurance in advance – nicely told, I might add. Nicely did not really help me with my problem though.
Well, it happened. I would pay well for a while and then things would get away from me. I would catch up and do better for a while and then things would get away from me again. If you think this is just a lame excuse, I can tell you that I would also get behind in sending out my invoices and also in depositing the cheques that my customers paid me with. I think I still have some cheques as evidence of this just to remind me of this hard lesson.
Well, after getting behind, sometimes I would get threatening letters from National Insurance in the mail warning that I could go to jail for not paying.
So let’s get this straight. I was not behind on other employees’ payments. I was the only employee. If I was harming anyone, I was harming myself. And the proposed solution was to put me in jail so that I would not harm myself? And all the while I would have been happy to pay a year in advance if they would only have allowed me to.
• You can’t have a business license, you are not qualified. Or, show us your papers! But, really we don’t know which ones.
After a number of years, out of the blue, I go to get my business license renewed one year and I am informed that I cannot have a business license as I am not qualified. I am told that I must bring in documents to prove that I am qualified. I asked what documents they needed to see in order to determine that I was qualified. I was informed that they did not know which documents I needed to bring in as proof but that I had to bring them in or I could not have my business license renewed.
I had to get my lawyer to write a letter (to the Attorney General’s Office if I recall correctly) telling them that they were denying me my constitutional rights and telling them to issue me the license. It got issued.
Unfortunately that was not the end of it. I had to go through the same “you are not qualified, bring in some unknown papers” routine at least once or twice more.
My best guess as to what was going on here:
• Someone was confused between owning a business and practising a “controlled” profession For example, the difference between owning a hospital and operating on a patient in that hospital. If I had the money, I might be able to buy up all the shares in Doctors Hospital but I could not be a doctor in the hospital. I am sure there are a good number of non-qualified owners of the hospital today as the shares are publicly traded to the best of my knowledge.
• Someone was confused and thought that the computer and technology business was a “controlled” profession along the lines of doctors, lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, etc.
• I don’t want to think this, but perhaps someone was abusing their power and giving me a hard time for kicks or some other unknown reason or looking for a payoff.
• • • •
And so ended this man’s dream of being his own boss. Today he is happy to leave the “Boss” man’s headaches to others, and practise his own skills in an organisation that relieves him of all the bureaucratic headaches.
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