The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Small Business Development Centre’s (SBDC) executive director has made an impassioned plea for entrepreneurs to drive The Bahamas’ post-COVID revival, arguing: “The innovation must come from you.”

Davinia Bain, addressing the Grand Bahama Business Outlook, said: “The minister (Michael Pintard) just spent the last 30 minutes talking about a million things the government has been doing to try to help. With the SBDC we could talk for days about a million things that we’ve been trying to do to help, and there have been all sorts of other entities.

“We’re throwing as many things as possible at you as entrepreneurs, because that’s where the solutions - in particular for times like this - come from. We can give you resources, we can give you help. But the real tools, the real thought processes, the real innovation, which is the main title of my presentation, we can’t give you.

“So we are begging... I am sitting, literally I’m sitting on the edge of my seat right now, waiting for you to help us with the innovation. No matter what type of programmes we put out there, if you don’t sit down and help us think about the angle that will work for our specific environment, it’s really just an empty shell without you as businesses.”

Ms Bain said some sectors and industries have enjoyed a significant financial boost despite the numerous economic restrictions imposed on them over the past year to combat COVID-19.

She said: “A lot of people are sitting, talking about who all lost money and you know how horrible things were economically. But there were some people who made a boatload of money. In every economic crisis, somebody is making money.

“So as a business person, when you’re going through a crisis, whether in The Bahamas or anywhere else - and we’ve had enough crises over the last 30 or 40 years to be able to see that you just have to figure out where the winning side is. People doing PPE (personal protective equipment) care items, they made a lot of money. That’s a no brainer. E-learning, again, that was a no brainer.”

Ms Bain spoke about her personal experience with the online food delivery service, Kraven, and how she will continue to spend money with it whenever the COVID-19 pandemic ends because of the convenience it offers. E-commerce solutions for other businesses you also would have fared very well during the COVID-19 economic restrictions.

“Different ways of transportation became a big deal because people would be rushing away from one another if they were on a bus. So people want to find another way to get to and from work, and so finding other means of transportation was an industry that boomed during COVID,” she added.

“Exterior renovations, this one is also a no brainer. Any number of restaurants now have pivoted. They have outdoor seating.” Ms Bain, though, said the SBDC had found that persons used to working in a 9am to 5pm structure as an employee, or managing someone else’s business, sometimes struggled to adjust to “the very different world” of running their own ventures.