Sabrina N. Gordon, Business Reporter

Errol Chin-Mook, president of the Small Businesses Association of Jamaica, has begun to build alliances with other trade associations and businesses. - file

The Small Businesses Association of Jamaica (SBAJ) has always had passion. What it has lacked is persistent lobby and linkages with groups through which its own views and peculiar problems could be amplified.

That is changing, partly because Errol Chin-Mook and his team have decided it must.

"We want to signal to Jamaica that the SBAJ means business," said Chin-Mook, who was recently elected the organisation's president. "We are heading for the estimated 356,550 SMEs (small and medium enterprises), formal and informal, spanning the fourteen parishes in Jamaica", he added.

There is no clear definition in Jamaica of what comprises a small business, but it is usually accepted that it is an enterprise that employs fewer than 15 people. Normally, too, they are owner-operated.

On the potential of its membership, the SBAJ, formed in 1974, should be a powerful organisation with considerable clout.

At one time, it had at least a loud voice, and some influence. But, according to Chin-Mook, who runs a firm called Global Ink, despite the efforts at revival by recent administrations, the SBAJ has largely been dormant for the past 18 years.

Indeed, the numbers tell a story: a mere 350 firms and individuals are currently on its roll as members. Moreover, nobody, anymore seriously listens to the SBAJ.

Chin-Mook's plan is to change all that by, as he put, "putting back business into the Small Businesses Association of Jamaica."

Convincing members

Whatever else he does, his job will have to include convincing existing and potential members that the SBAJ has the capacity to effectively articulate their interests.

Patrick Tucker, who runs the firm Vision Investment and Finance, is one of those who will be watching closely.

"The Small Business Association has a role to play in creating opportunities for persons who might not find space in the wider economic sphere," said Tucker. "But the sector is under-performing and the leadership of the SBAJ has failed to provide the voice that is needed to push it forward."

Chin-Mook is aware of such concerns and says that this is a priority of the association's new executive, which has gone about the job by strengthening its alliance within the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, as well as creating relationships with institutions such as the Consumer Affairs Commission and the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce.

The idea, in part, is to widen the forum through which the views of the small business sector can be heard.

Among the issues for which the SBAJ intends to lobby, which it has already impressed on Industry and Commerce minister Karl Samuda, is clear Government policy in support of small business, including a procurement regime that takes into account the peculiar issues faced by such enterprises.

Policy

"Government policy must be developed for the assistance and encouragement of the establishment and growth of small businesses," Chin-Mook said.

But his proposal for the regeneration of the organisation does not rest solely on lobbying for more benign Government policy in favour of the small business sector.

He intends for the SBAJ to do things itself which will be of benefit to its members and SMEs in general.

For example, it hopes to establish regional offices with documentation and business support centres that will help to provide support for small businesses across the island. Another plan is for the creation of a professional services company to sell the goods and services of the association and its members on the Jamaican, Caribbean and international markets. Indeed, the SBAJ is already working on opportunities for distribution of niche products via an international company with U.K. links.

"The small businessman must understand that they can't operate in a vacuum," said Chin-Mook.

"They have to think globally."

Those who want to access the global market, Chin-Mook says, can begin to work through the SBAJ, which will help to determine the suitability of products and availability of markets.

"If it (the product) does not reach international standard then the SBAJ will do what it takes to make it so," said Chin-Mook.

But to execute the mandate Chin-Mook and his team has set themselves, the SBAJ has to possess, among its members and within its secretariat, the skills with which to do the job.

Indeed, the European Union/ Government of Jamaica-funded Private Sector Development Pro-gramme has helped to finance, through a $4 million project, a training programme for SBAJ members in areas such as customer service, leadership, marketing, human resource management and development.

This project is also helping with the renovation of the association's headquarters at 2 Trafalgar Road in Kingston.

Said Chin-Mook: "The mission of the SBAJ is to support the economy of Jamaica through the development of the small business sector ... In doing so the association will be playing a vital role in effectively building the country and its people."

sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com