| Betty-Ann Gilbert speaking to participants of the ECCB Entrepreneurship Course 2012 |
Basseterre, St Kitts, 20 July 2012 — The in-class sessions of the 2012 ECCB Entrepreneurship Course culminated with a discussion on, “The Challenges and Triumphs of Entrepreneurship” facilitated by entrepreneur Betty-Ann Gilbert.
Ms Gilbert, who is the owner of Innovative Transport Services Limited and Dynamic Distributors Limited, brought the discussion to life with stories about her journey into entrepreneurship. She challenged the group of 30 participants to follow their passion and dedicate their time to learning about and growing their businesses. “When you do this the money will come,” she said.
Ms Gilbert, with over 10 years of experience as an entrepreneur, emphasised the importance of relationships, networking and teamwork, stressing that these elements were critical for success, especially in the current economic circumstances. She encouraged the group of aspiring entrepreneurs to be committed to their particular ventures and be cautious and fiscally prudent as it pertains to financial management.
This is the second time the ECCB is offering its Entrepreneurship Course in St Kitts and Nevis. The objectives of the course are to inspire more persons to consider entrepreneurship as a goal and to promote best business practices among small business owners. The current participants will have the opportunity to pitch their individual business plans to local private sector partners, collaborating with the ECCB, to vie for seed capital to fund their ventures, before the course ends in September.
The ECCB Entrepreneurship Course has been introduced in Grenada and Anguilla and will be launched in other ECCB member countries later this year.
Entrepreneurship development is important to the ECCB’s mandate to actively promote the economic development of its member countries; the two sides of economic development comprising financial sector development and enterprise development.