Empretec continues to aid small business owners after 10 years

Empretec continues to aid small business owners after 10 years


Commemorating a decade in the business, Empretec Guyana will be launching its anniversary activities on Friday.
Empretec, a non-profit institution with a programme designed to help support and advance small business operators with entrepreneurial skills was initiated in Guyana 10 years ago through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Managing Director of Empretec Judy Semple-Joseph
According to the institution’s Managing Director Judy Semple-Joseph, a research was conducted on key items that make entrepreneurs successful regardless of their location. The research identified ten entrepreneurial competencies with three main behavior patterns that, if practised, will build the capacity of the entrepreneur to improve their businesses.
“At the end of it, participants understand their personal strengths and weaknesses, what it is they need to do for themselves and how they can achieve it,” Mrs. Joseph explained. She added that the programme is not business skills training as some might have identified.  Rather, it is about an attitude toward success.
The Entrepreneurial Training Workshop (ETW), the key product of Empretec, is designed to afford budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to identify the entrepreneurial competencies within themselves and practise the behaviour.
With six days of intense capacity building, the workshop provides hands-on practical activities aimed at allowing entrepreneurs to assess their present position as business owners and their capacity to improve.
Among the ten competencies that the workshop expounds on is the commitment to quality and efficiency, characteristics of successful businesses. Participants are enlightened on the importance of quality customer service, in their presentation, environment and even in their personal dress.
Taking risks, business planning, developing confidence, networking and continued research are all entwined into the training programme that helps entrepreneurs to steer their business while taking it to the next level.
Participants of the practical training programme are placed in an environment where they essentially learn the secrets of being successful entrepreneurs; they cultivate the behaviour of successful entrepreneurs, and make decisions directed to reaching their goals.
According to some, the workshop had resulted in a total ‘turn-around’ of their businesses and is seen, not only as an investment in their businesses, but as an investment in themselves as ambitious individuals.
Shawn Benn, who is currently the owner and manager of Professional Auto Body Work Establishment, said that through the Empretec programme that he had attended in 2005, he was exposed to some of the sciences and intricacies of business that he would not have previously stumbled upon.
Benn said that from an early age he had been interested in the trade and wanted to operate his own business, which he started doing in 1994. He related that although he had been encountering success in his field, he was still interested in the “fineries” of the business world.
Benn said that he personally benefitted from the entrepreneurial competencies which taught him to be persistent and to take risks. He added that he was taught that “if you wanted anything badly enough, even the heavens will open up to allow you to pass”.
This, he explained, was what he implemented when tragedy struck twice, with floods and a fire, resulting in losses, personally, and to his business.
Benn was able to bounce back and rebuild his life and business using the skills and attitudes taught at the workshop.
Currently, Benn is operating a flourishing business which he has even expanded to accommodate an Investment Agency. In addition, he collaborates with a Ministry of Labour apprenticeship programme through the Board of Industrial Training to teach his trade to young men.
Halema Rodrigues added that the Empretec programme benefitted her immensely, and like Shawn Benn, proved to be useful in times of adversity. Her business was broken into and robbed.
“If it wasn’t for Empretec, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” she said.
Halema attributes her success largely to the workshop and also to Republic Bank for sponsoring the Venture Out for Women programme, also hosted by Empretec. She is currently embarking on an added location of her business.