The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) on Friday launched its second National Small Business Week under the theme, “Strategic Collaboration for Success” which calls for increased partnerships between small businesses in the country.
National Small Business Week aims to elevate micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) within GCCI’s membership, of which some 60 companies will be participating this year.
During a press conference on Friday, GCCI President Kester Hutson encouraged small businesses to look at different ways to collaborate, one of which can be to pool their resources and collectively seek out contracts.
“We recognise that you have quite a few businesses who operate in their own space but don’t have the resources to grow and develop,” Hutson said.
“And so, with over 800 members within the GCCI, we will now ask these members to start looking at the different lenses of collaboration, for persons operating in the same space to pool their resources, go after contracts and projects [together] and to grow in a successful and steady manner,” Hutson said.
Echoing this call for collaboration, GCCI also partnered with the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) and the Tourism, Industry, and Commerce Ministry to host this year’s activities which runs from July 21 to 29.
The roster of events includes Small Business Saturday, an opportunity to interact with businesses in Georgetown and Linden, and Small Business Sunday, a similar opportunity, this time hosted in Berbice and Essequibo.
Entrepreneurship and Small Business Committee Chairperson, Evie Gurcharan highlighted other activities including a Rising Entrepreneurs Video Series.
“That will cover a few of the participants so that the public can learn more about what they do. And of course, our theme is about collaboration so really digging into what the small businesses do and how we can position them for collaboration will be what we will be trying to showcase,” Gurcharan related.
A highlight of the week will be the highly anticipated ‘Teenternship’ programme, empowering students and persons interested in starting a small business with hands-on training alongside accomplished business executives.
“We’re covering topics such as leadership, management, organisational structure – nothing very intense [but] a very nice immersive experience where they will work with a manager or Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for five days and understand how businesses run at the medium scale,” Gurcharan said.
She further pointed out that this week of events concludes with a small business seminar and expo to be hosted at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre on July 29.
GTT Chief Operations Officer Orson Ferguson remarked that National Small Business Week aligns with the telecom giant’s expectations and belief that when small businesses thrive, the economy thrives.
“We believe that small businesses, small and medium-sized businesses absolutely need more platforms to showcase their products and services. We think that this expo is an excellent platform for small businesses. We think that the seminars and training, and exposure that those activities bring for small businesses is extremely, extremely important,” Ferguson said.
He added that some of the seminars will be live-streamed to offer businesses unable to physically participate a chance to still take in valuable information.
