GCCI creates National Small Business Week to promote businesses

With Guyana’s explosion on the international stage and the mega investments set to come, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) launched a new venture – the National Small Business Week 2022 – to provide micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) a platform to ably position themselves to benefit from the many opportunities here.

Launched on Wednesday in the GCCI’s boardroom with the tag “shop small for a big impact”, the initiative was developed by Rosh Khan, the Chairman of GCCI’s Entrepreneurship and Small Business Committee.

According to Khan, the event will help to advocate for policies, strengthen trade and investment and “foster meaningful connections” that can ultimately lead to the expanded economic growth of small businesses.

“Small businesses are the backbone of the economy – we have heard this before but when you really look at what small business owners do, they are ultimately community leaders, they are the individuals that exercise grit to go out there every day, they are the individuals that hire from their community.

“So what we have done here with Small Business Week is really to create a platform to showcase what they have to offer through sharing incentives, specials deals, discounts and value ads that may not be available outside of this week,” he explained.

It should be noted that the event was created specifically for the over 240 small businesses that are members of the GCCI. But according to Chamber President Timothy Tucker, the event is opened to the public to capture other small businesses.

Tucker explained that the GCCI has always been at the forefront of advocacy for businesses in the capital but many may have the perception that it only represents large-scale enterprises.

“No one is locked out of the GCCI, it is not a big boys club. I, myself as a small business owner have used the GCCI to resolve issues so I encourage persons to participate, to develop your business,” he said.

The National Small Business Week will run from April 8 – April 16 and will feature a series of online webinars, community outreaches and specially catered deals for the public to take advantage of.

The event will, however, not entail an exhibition-type show and the organisers said this was purposefully done to encourage foot traffic to physical locations.

Interested small businesses can sign up at https://nsbw.gcci.gy to source additional resources. And it is anticipated that the National Small Business Week will turn into an annual event for Guyana.