The keenness of women to embrace self-employment reflects itself at several levels of our society, from the preponderance of vendors in the various municipal markets, arcades and pavements in the city and its environs to the more established ‘high street’ and services entities in the beauty, entertainment and other sectors.
When the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced some time ago that it was opening up a ‘window’ through which small businesses could secure membership several women whose enterprises this newspaper had promoted in its columns over the previous weeks and months called us to seek our judgment on whether it might be a good idea to join the Chamber. One of the suggestions that we made was that it might be a good idea if only to create the opportunity to benefit from the wisdom of an organization that has had several decades of experience in orthodox business practices.
More recently, the Stabroek Business has been monitoring the evolution of the Small Business Bureau and the role that it says it wants to play in the development of small businesses. Again, we get a sense that significant numbers of women are likely to benefit from loans and grants that are available under the auspices of the Bureau. Perhaps equally important, is the fact that there is funding available for various forms of training since without such training it is almost certain that considerable resources are likely to go to waste. Again, as we have done before, we make the point that if there is a certain political appeal to creating opportunities for ordinary people, including women, who wish to take the plunge into one entrepreneurial pursuit or another, unless we ensure that they have the know-how the whole initiative could do more harm than good.
If we can get it right it would be a good thing if more women, more ordinary women can be supported in the pursuit of their entrepreneurial ambitions. Apart from fulfilling personal ambitions that might include helping to support their families, enhancing their self-esteem and extricating themselves from abusive relationships. In the cases where economic independence provides a way out of such relationships, the incentive is all the greater, at the national level to create more and more opportunities for women to find their way into business.
Business opportunities for women also do much to enhance their self-esteem and truth be told some forward steps have been taken in this regard. While relationships between women entrepreneurs and local financial institutions are nothing new, these days, there is increasing evidence of female small business owners engaging banks and other financial institutions, armed with sound business plans (which they were trained to complete on their own) seeking support in pursuit of business ventures.
The entry of greater numbers of women into small and medium-sized business ventures in the beauty, wholesale and retail trade, agro-processing, children’s entertainment and food and beverage sectors, among others, is one of the positive even if little celebrated features of economic life in Guyana. Much of what they have achieved is on account of their own efforts. Women are simply that way by nature. A point has, however, long been reached, where they have made a powerful case for greater levels of institutional support.
