Using your mobile technology to build your business

Businesses are becoming smaller in size, and hopefully with some planning, they can become more nimble within their environments. Many have been displaced within recent time and with their resources being limited, they need to have ways that they can get up to speed quickly. How can they do this, and do it well? This time, more than any, is when consideration needs to be given to the acquisition and use of mobile technology. 

The presence of so many different types of mobile technology in the market place gives rise to a diverse set up applications for a significant number of business opportunities. 

Many businesses are now functioning semi-remotely. Despite resources being scarce, there are mobile tech hardware and software that can help businesses gain traction within their chosen markets. There's literally no excuse not to function competently. 

Here's why:

• Smartphones can cost more than laptops/desktops and are versatile in their applications and dexterity of  functioning while the businessman/woman is on the move. 
• There are paid and free apps that enable the businesses to do the work of entire offices while on the go; and the available platforms support this process. 
• Delegation is easy and reliable. 
• Collaboration is easy, reliable and functional.
• Response rate is almost instantaneous. 
• Document management was also mobile complete with the virtual filing system(s). This is largely due to the memory capacity on most devices. 
• Backup systems are in the cloud making it absolutely difficult to lose information. 

Now that you are aware you have the technology. Here are some things that you need to be aware of:

• Changing devices is easy as information updates are instantaneous when you log in with you profile credentials. 
• Backups/Restoration is easy and reliable. 
• Your contacts are readily at hand should you need to make contact with them. 
• You can process invoices, refunds and track your bookkeeping activity directly from your mobile devices. 
• There are endless security services to protect your data. 
• You can easily manage your devices from your administrative panels and the information they can access. 
• You can see your schedule at a glance. 
• There is seamless integration between devices which means you can continue working even on the move. 
• There is talk to type technology so that you don't break stride with your productivity. 
• You can access movies and music should you need to gear back for a break. 
• There are a plethora of courses, workshops, and webinars to keep you in the know as you seek out more knowledge. 

No excuses are available any longer. Use your preferred mobile technology and get busy on building and developing your future and safeguarding your livelihood and that of those you care about. 

Check our website bladesandbladesconsultancy.com for continued posts and updates. Hope this helps move you in the direction of your most dominant thoughts of success. 

Foreign Direct Investment [FDI] - How practical and accessible is it?

For most who have become frustrated with the available local funding options for one reason or another, there are some who have decided to explore other options. This comes against the backdrop of governments suggesting urging business owners to expand outside of our jurisdictions, export more and seek to expand. 

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is often discussed and seems to be seldom understood, even by those within the financial sector. It would appear that the various entities responsible for overseeing these types of transactions seem to be more than apprehensive about such transactions. What do I mean? 

The organizations:

• Don't seem to trust the source of funds and don't really seem to be able to assist in the provision of due diligence/even be able to advise on the process of due diligence that is available. There seems to be a fear of making a mistake permeating the various entities. 
• The entities that are in authority of such transactions don't seem to relate to each other. Why do I say that? Their information isn't synchronized and at times can seem to be conflicting. The organizations don't appear to even have a relationship with each other. This comment is made from the outside looking in. 
• There is no clear methodology to advise the public how to go about seeking and attracting FDI. So that even when entities successfully attract such interests, there's always a catch 22 that frustrates the process. 

Is FDI worth it? 

It seems to be more of a hassle than anything else. Why one has to go through a number of compliance steps in order to become compliant which usually is expensive, only to be told that there's an absurd aspect that prohibits the deal from being completed. This can even happen after getting authorisation from the Central Bank, meeting previous compliance standards, being legally compliant, then you get snagged on a technicality that could have been prohibited if you had the necessary guidance from the outset. It's a hard lesson to learn. 

In many cases, investors ask how come the banks are not jumping at these deals locally. They then decide to fund the transaction(s) completely [100% funding]. With seeming low-interest rates; until the payback is calculated in full. Then you see the hidden elements of the deal. Here's what I mean:

• Investors reserve the right to divest of the investment to other investors, which means you totally lose control of the ownership and who you can do business with. Often these contracts don't seem to have the first right to refusal. 
• You must have the insurance sums to prepay and secure your commitment to show that you're serious about doing business in the first place. This insurance acts as your security to participate in the transaction and can be quite expensive. 
• Defaults in repayment offer little recourse on the part of the investors who ensure that they clearly state what must and must not happen. 

There are other considerations and these examples are not exhausted by any means. If you're going to be in business, you need a strong team in order to build a business confidently and transparently that people can trust. 

Richard Blades functions in business development primarily in Barbados and regionally as we serve to help businesses do it right when planning their strategy. 

What do we know about our business environment - How can we then plan

Let's address the elephant in the room with what we know:

• There's no vaccine for COVID-19 in the near foreseeable future.
• The ways and methods we used to work in the past are now for the most part obsolete.
• The future will bring waves of disasters of one type or another: Wave 2 of COVID-19; Hurricane Season, as we're facing in a few hours; A historical virus or one that may be brand new that can pose serious world threats if mismanaged as in the case of this one. 
• The need to become self-sufficient as a people since we should realize how few of us can rely on the government machinery to mobilize with needed short turn around times to be really of benefit. Especially since many governments are in a state where they have been mishandled over time. 
• Leadership, going forward, need to be more solution focus and be able to act quickly and decisively in a way that benefits the public served and themselves. It has to be win/win in almost all cases. 

Since we cannot hide for significant amounts of time anymore, it means that we must function with heightened caution in all aspects of our lives. We can never be afforded the opportunity to be caught napping. 

Mentally, we have got to focus on areas of greatest concern and not be misdirected by the areas of the tragedy which causes us to focus on the outcome rather than the cause. 

We have to fortify our minds daily with information that is positive so that we adopt a can-do mindset so that nothing will be looked upon as being impossible. We will need to examine and study new systems of doing things. In some cases, we may even have the responsibility of creating the systems that will emerge. 

Stay tuned as we increase our discussions and share thoughts on our experiences, observations, possible trends and business developments. You may have a thought that I may have overlooked based on your experiences and interactions, I invite you to share so that it can benefit the greater good of mankind. 

Thoughts on Caribbean Businesses

Whenever things in the economy get tight one of the first things politicians in developing countries do is turn their direction towards entrepreneurship. In many cases, it's hard to tell if this is genuine and the interests are for real.

Job gimmickry often comes to mind for a number of reasons. The key one being that this is a way of justifying job creation through lip service. My thinking goes this way for some of the various reasons I'll now highlight below.

• The processes entrepreneurs face is becoming increasingly bureaucratic since the government wants tax clearance certificates issued at every turn. The attempts at collecting taxes are becoming a nickel and dime process without a holistic approach that can make the entire process more simple. 
• Too many companies in Barbados and perhaps the Caribbean are not structured for growth. The general approach is to incorporate without the incorporation documents supporting the raising of capital via shares instead of debt financing. Consequently, too many businesses are limited by the opinions of the lending officers within banking institutions who may have never run a business and have no appreciation for what is required in the running of one. Most banks then represent their interests with a cookie cutter approach rather than truly examining the business on its own merit. 
• The accountants along with business advisory services and attorneys need to interact more in the advice that they provide companies so that their advice is more inclusive to the strategy that the business wishes to employ that would best serve its sustainability and survival. 
• The leaders of the business are ignorant of areas outside of their immediate scope of work since they do not read enough developmentally. Sure they know the technical information yet that often is not enough to grow to the levels of success that such an educated grouping of leaders should be meeting and exceeding. Hence the performance of Caribbean businesses remains constant for the most part with very little mobility in either direction. Once they are profitable, the incentive to stretch further seems to be non-existent as leaders setting into contentment with their levels of performance. They function completely oblivious to the competition from other world markets. 

This is by no means finished but serves the basis of getting the reader to think that perhaps more needs to be done. We need to get on purpose with business development, not only within our existing markets but seeking to expand into other markets and create opportunities future development. 

We need to develop our own unique model for conducting business and take it global thereby helping them to understand what it means to be doing business within our standards. Perhaps we should redefine what it means to be doing business@islandtime, and help them understand that we do business as a people the world over. 

The personal side of the entrepreneurship lifestyle

As an entrepreneur, everyone expects that you'll always be the strong one - striving for success, achieving set budgets, having a surplus of profits that contribute to a really great lifestyle.

You get letters from various people who want you to contribute to their causes, customers / clients who believe that you have enough money so they will pay you in the next batch. The governments of the day who burden you with staggering taxes, prohibiting you from properly paying themselves, but contributing to their planned schemes and projects where the money's wasted and nothing seems to be accomplished. They don't see the hustle, the sleepless nights, the inability to afford the basics; the fact that your personal quality of life is nowhere near where they or yourself expected.

When I get to see the inner information pertaining to entrepreneurs, the pictures are not pretty. In many cases, they try to conceal the true situation even from their families and loved ones. So who knows the entrepreneur?  It often comprises of themselves and their banker.

Entrepreneurs often face these situations:

• No salary / wage
• No benefits 
• No vacations 
• No specialty team of advisors 
• No group huddle of others in similar relationships to discuss how to deal with the challenges
• No reserve funds 
• No proper organizational structure 

Additionally, technical assistance that's available often has a lot of requirements to be fulfilled to qualify for the assistance. Another area requiring lots of information before assistance is grants. 

Will they ever be a system that allows the entrepreneurs to do what they do best - work, while the other activities get completed by professionals in the requisite fields? 

The next time someone offers you the opportunity to be an entrepreneur, think long and hard. The investment of time and resources can be enormous, and not obvious at first neither. 

Despite the drawbacks, there can be benefits such as:

• Control of your time if you're organized. 
• Networking opportunities, where you can work with the more desirous of your contacts. 
• Projects developed can be better controlled by you using the timeframes as you allocate based on your scheduling. 
• Serving multiple markets reduces and removes the element of boredom as there's always something to learn.
• On going education, where you learn elements of the business that you would be never exposed to if you worked in a job. 
• If you get to make money, you get first pick at spending, then the government gets theirs. Way different than when you're an employee. [NB. Employees are taxed heavier than corporations in some jurisdictions] 

Entrepreneurship is not all that it's cracked up to be, unless it is done well. You have to be prepared to make some investment of time / money / other resources along the way. If you're good at it, the personal side of the entrepreneurship lifestyle may be worth it for you. 

Organizations with notable contributions to Small Business

In my years of business development, I have come across a number of entities that have given assistance to the development of SMEs over the years. However, I have found that they are some that stand out more than others not only for their assistance, but for their consistency of effort.

In this instance, I will focus on those that are located within the island of Barbados. I would hope that they will take note of this post and endeavor to continue to great work that they have done over the years. To explain the services of each one would result in a post that would probably bore the reader. Therefore, if you have any knowledge of their services or industries that they operate within you will know that they are exemplary in their offerings:

Telecommunications

• LIME - for all their services and packages

 Banking and Finance

• Scotiabank
• First Citizens Bank
• City of Bridgetown Cooperative Credit Union

Technical Assistance and Mentoring

•  The Barbados Investment and Development Corporation [BIDC]
• Caribbean Export
• The Barbados Youth Business Trust 
• The Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme
• Science and Technology

There was a time that a lot of support came from

• The Barbados Coalition of Service Industries [BCSI] 
• Republic Bank 
• CIBC First Caribbean International Bank

Conference and meeting facilities

• The Hilton Barbados
• The Barbados Yacht Club
• The Courtyard by Marriott
• The Accra Beach Hotel 
• The Coffee Bean [more for meetings] 

 Power

• The Barbados Light and Power 

Water

• The Barbados Water Authority 

Permissions

• The Town and Country Planning Office 

Ongoing Education

• The Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic [SJPP]
• The Barbados Community College [BCC] 
• Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity [BIMAP] 
• The University of the West Indies [UWI] 

Incentive creation and positive functional taxation policies that facilitate economic growth

• The Government of Barbados with their Bright, Lucrative, Policies 

We want to take this opportunity to say thank you for your various contributions to SME development within Barbados.You will note that mentioning SMEs does not mean entrepreneurs, but small businesses that drive the tangible sustainability of the economy. Thank you for your outstanding efforts.

Getting your marketing in gear

So you've moved from idea, through concept, and now you have a business running. When you started your ideas were the best thing that everyone needed. Your friends, family and supporters certainly told you so. So where are they now?

If you were in business for some time and are aware of your statistics, you'll find that your friends and family are seldom within that cluster of numbers. To truly succeed you have to engage people you don't know to do business with you. They need to find out about your business, what is being offered and how.

In short form - You have to Market!

Now marketing has many aspects involved. In today's world, someone who's not well versed in marketing can become overwhelmed with all the terms that jargon associated with the field. What do I mean?

• Public Relations / PR
• Sales
• Strategic Marketing 
• and so many other areas 

The oversimplified marketing approach is to turn a suspect into a prospect into a paying client into repeat business. 

What are you doing to move towards your fourth sale with a client. Too many in business experience the musket syndrome - only one shot at a client, then leaving the client in limbo. Move towards the provision of a complete service, and you'll be surprised at the difference it makes in your business. 

The Potential in People

There's something about sharing business information with people that's exciting.  At least I find so. When participants arrive they have all kinds of expectations, their needs for information are quite varied and numerous.

Over the years, I have been rewarded with success stories from programs that we have conducted. In some cases the results were fast. Here are a few:

• Learning what I did from this program, I went out and implemented some of what I learnt with tremendous results. I'm here again to see what else I may have missed. 
• When you said what you did about handling objections in the sales process and that we should never allow the same answer to stump us more than once, you got me listening. When you suggested some of the responses, I tried them and got significant results. Thank you. 
• Treating my work colleagues as customers has made a difference to my work day. Our environment is so much more friendly and productive. We get more done in less time and with little stress. Please come again. 
• Richie B. I have done programs with you that included customer service, sales, business planning,  and they have all yielded fruit. Whatever you put on in the future, and I can make it, I'll be there. 

Comments like these warm the heart. I remember stopping the use of reviews in our training since I once got graded 11's with 10 being the top end of the scale outlining excellence. My reasoning was that it may have caused me to lose my edge by becoming complacent. 

Sometimes, we would be there to do just one training program. Especially having been told that there were budget constraints. When the organization realized the effectiveness of the program, the changes in the participants, and the speed with which they saw results (sometimes as quickly as 24 - 48 hours); we would be called back for further programs often within weeks of completion. 

There was one client in the early days that we prospected for five (5) years before we closed the deal for us to do one program. Within weeks of completing that program on customer service, we went back on multiple occasions within that said year to do sales, and then team building. We were then subsequently booked almost yearly since that time. 

Within the last couple of years we have been conducting training in business planning, complete with the final sessions being to have meetings with investors and financiers. The participants loved the process, so did those with the money. Since they were getting people who were at least prepared in so many ways to do business. 

There are too many stories to share in this short article. I would love to hear yours too. Perhaps we can do business sometime. Check us out. We just love to see other people realize their potential.