JA USA Chamber Business Expo

Last night I attended the Jamaica USA Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. Usually I post my thoughts on these events which I will do again here but not now. My wife and I are headed off for a weekend gettaway to JA for Memorial Day weekend. But when I return I will talk about my brief chat with Rovan Locke of the Caribbean Commentary, a discusion with Irvine Headley of Bilmor Advertising, a long discussion with an exhibitor who offerred extensive advice on the magazine, and David Muir of the law firm Wright Muir PA. And of course I will give my reaction to the event (the little that I saw of it anyway).

In the meantime it is off to JA!!

One year of blogging

Well today represents my one year anniversary of blogging. Yup, one year ago today I made my first post. Since that first post, I realize that now my approach to posting my writings have changed. I am a little more organized in my thoughts and patient in my posts. I am also selective about the blogs I post comments to.

At first, my blog was intended to talk about my launch of the Caribbean Business Digest magazine but it has also evolved in my forum for posting my thoughts on issues that I believe affect our Caribbean American community here as well as business issues in general.

So I look forward to the upcoming year as far as this blog is concerned and continuing to share my thoughts and if anybody out there reads what I have to write then I must say thanks.


Visit the magazine's website at www.caribbeanbusinessdigest.com

Starting a business while keeping full time job

The following post was on the FSB Blog this past week and it had to do with starting a business while keeping your full time job. For most entrepreneurs that is a classic dilemma since they may have an idea that they would like to explore but find it difficult to give up the fulltime job. This situation arises from the lack of places to obtain capital. A lot of Caribbean Americans (among other groups) here face this problem and end up having to hustle and save funds to start their projects. But this situation is not as bad in the over all scheme of things as I think it maintains a sense of balance. If there was a steady pool of cheap capital available there may be 1. A lack of innovation 2. A lack of proper management.

A lack of innovation would result from easy capital because there would be no need to find cutting edge ideas as virtually every idea put forward would be capable of getting funding. With the tight availability of capital, entrepreneurs have to ensure that their ideas are well thought in order to compete for the available capital. Also, a lack of proper management of the capital obtained would result since the ability to dip back into the capital pool would offset poor funds management decisions. So the lack of readily available funds is a controlling factor for small businesses. Of course, it is frustrating for entrepreneurs but the economic theory of scarcity (ie demand outpacing supply) has a powerful effect.

Venture capitalists and angel investors networks at first glance may threaten this balance. But, venture capitalist rarely invest in start-ups unless the entrepreneur has a proven track record. In applying this to our Caribbean community, entrepreneurs would be hard pressed to get venture capital (unless VC is organized specifically toward the Caribbean American community). Angel Investor group as I have stated in prior posts would be good for our community if we can get past some organizing and trust issues. But, assuming that this network is formed, one would assume again that the criteria for getting funds would be strict in order to weed out poor projects and so the scarcity model comes back into play.

So what are entrepreneurs to do? Well, they bootstrap their ventures with their own funds like I have to do, and borrowings from friends and family. And they have to be innovative in their approach until the project takes off.

Jamaica USA Chamber of Commerce Business Expo

In the upcoming week the Jamaica USA Chamber of Commerce will be having a business expo in conjunction with the Jamaica Manufacturers Association. The event will be held at the Signature Grand in Davie, Florida. Here, businesses will get a chance to exhibit their products and services and establish relationship with companies here in the US. Representatives should include the trade, manufacturing and financing industries. So, this would be a good event to attend and make some connections in terms of doing business in Jamaica and here as well. This is a wonderful networking opportunity and though I cannot commit to both days' entire activities I hope to make the evening networking session.

I am not sure what the response has been so far but this kind of event presents a vital opportunity to establish economic ties with the Diaspora and the home country. My concern is this however: how effective is the promotion of this event? This type of event should not only target businesses here in an attempt to match them with businesses from Jamaica, but I believe the the promotion of this event should target non-business owners here in the US as well. That is to say individuals. Granted, it would be hard and expensive to push this event to reach a substantial section of the Diaspora. But, this type of event can be publicized through civic groups as well as in partnerships with other chambers. I do not see this happening or if it is I just am not aware. But, I would love to see more effort on the part of the JAUSACC to reach a wider cross section of the Diaspora as well as more interaction with other chambers of commerce.

Hiring illegal immigrants

I read this article on the Fortune Small Business blog. Essentially, the question about hiring illegal immigrants by companies here in the US is asked and there were a slew of responses of varying types. It is worth reading. I guess I should not be surprised at the tone of some of the responses.

I find it difficult to come out at either end in this debate. Being an immigrant (a legal one, I repeat, a legal US citizen) I sympathize with the immigrants without the proper paperwork looking for work in the US and do believe that the undocumented workers who are here for years do not deserve to be tossed out due to some political agenda.

The Caribbean forum coming up in June may address some immigration issues. Let's see what develops

Telephone inquiries, banking errors and consulting

Two events to report on that happened yesterday. First my cell phone rings and I glanced quickly at the screen and saw a number that looked like my wife calling me from work. So I picked up the phone and said "Hi sweetheart". Well turns out the number was not my wife's but someone inquiring about ad rates. What an embarrassment! So I tried to apologize and salvage the situation. The lady, Grace was her name, thanked me for the information and then hung up. I may just call her up sometime next week to follow up.

Secondly, I reviewed the bank statement for the magazine' bank account only to find that i had $115 in bank fees for the month of March. Needless to say I hit the roof. I calmly look for the documents governing the account to see the fee structure and sure enough the bank was wrong. This was supposed to be a free business checking account so I called the bank to straighten it out. The charges were reversed and the monies refunded but it got me thinking: this type of thing affects small businesses more than it affects their larger counterparts. Errors like this can result in bounced checks, ticked off vendors etc. So in addition to servicing clients, marketing their business they have to take care of the administrative side as well, which often gets overlooked. Which leads me to another point: given my accounting background I am contemplating starting my own accounting consulting business helping small business owners understand the value of their accounting system, how to get the best from it, integrating it into operations and I suppose if necessary run their accounting departments. Not sure how to take the leap but working on that plan.

Spirit Airlines from the Observer.

This article came to my attention some time ago. One thing I can say about Spirit Airlines is that they definitely know what product they are offering and are clear about how they plan on competing.

I can't argue with their plan though. Right now it seems to be cheaper to go to Jamaica than it is to go to Disney world. At the end of the day most travellers are looking for the cheapest way to travel and Spirit seems to be offering a no frills approach to meet that need. I think this approach may just change the way we can expect to travel now.........

Jamaican Diaspora Mini Conference

Well this past weekend I went to the mini conference of the Jamaican Diaspora. Though I could not stay for the entire meeting I enjoyed the event and it left me feeling very positive for the future. My interest level was along the business aspect of things so I sat with the group that addressed business issues. A couple points that came up was the creation of a database of businesses and associated skills, a forum where the Jamaican government can list projects for which it is accepting bids for jobs, and a network of sorts where the issue of funding can be addressed.

A few thoughts sprung to my mind. First, a database already exists. There is a website (http://www.caribbeanbusinesscommunity.com/) that lists Caribbean businesses all over the world. The portal allows for the user to search for businesses by country of origin. Now, if the Jamaican diaspora chooses to use this website, it would be in essence promoting this business. Personally, I don't see a problem with this. The owners of this website already has a framework in place that the diaspora can take advantage of. It is worth noting that the Trinidad diaspora wants to do the same thing i.e creating a database as well. Should these members of the Caribbean diaspora choose to go with the above website, it would be taking advantage of existing infrastructure and opening up the businesses being listed to a wider audience.

The issue of funding comes up in all discussions regarding small businesses. But, I think that instead of relying on government or bank loans there is enough wealth to go around among private individuals to solve the issue of funding. The term angel investors come to mind. The question is are we sophisticated enough to do this and are we willing to trust each other enough to do this. I think we have enough knowledge and sophistication to do this but the jury is still out on the latter part of my question.

Venture capitalists may not be the answer for the smaller businesses or start ups but angel investing or a network that matches up investors with entrepreneurs may be the way to go. I submitted these thoughts as part of my input in the meeting before I left. Let's see if anything comes out of it. Marlon Hill Esq, who is the Jamaican diaspora representative for southeast Florida usually sends out minutes of the meetings. I look forward to receiving it.

New ad campaign and other random thoughts

It has been over a week since my last post which is like an eternity in the online world. So this post is overdue. This past week has seen me attend a mini conference for the Jamaican diaspora here in Florida but more on that in a separate post. Let me take time out to thank Abeni for the shout out given to me on her blog. Kinda surprised but loved it. So thank you very much for that. Actually her blog is kinda different for me, it relaxes me and makes me reflect on things.

Well, what else happened this week? I was on the beat trying to secure advertising for my next issue. And each passing week I learn a whole lot. I only hope that the magazine is around in the future so I can put all the lessons in play.

I spoke with a car salesman in the Palm Beach area to ask him how do I get a large company as his to advertise in my publication. What I ended up getting was the blueprint for a new ad campaign. Basically, he showed me that what I needed was consistency, getting a track record and a list of advertisers that will give me a good reference from the business relationship we have developed. Looking forward to getting this new plan in the works. Let's see how it turns out.

Medical Tourism

This article came to my attention today. Medical costs are through the roof and I believe will continue to be that way for the foreseeable future. Small business owners find it tough to offer health insurance to employees and even large companies find that a huge portion of the bottom line is eaten up with health care costs. Enter Medical Tourism which the article is pointing out is taking off in some areas. I for one believe that this will become the way to go eventually. With the costs so high people have to look for alternatives and medical tourism will be one such option. This is a spin off of globalization. It is not new really. Recently there was the whole buying drugs from Canada and Mexico. Now you can go to a variety of places for surgery. In some cases the cost of airfare, lodging in the foreign country and medical services could be less than staying in the US and having surgery.

I first heard of Medical Tourism from a Business Week article some time last year and then heard more from Aubyn Hill the former chairman of NCB (?) in a presentation to the Jamaican USA Chamber of Commerce at a Power Lunch last year. In the presentation, he highlighted some areas for investment that the Diaspora could tap into and one such area was medical tourism. The numbers were impressive. A 2% share of the US market could result in over 1 million visitors to the island. With the large number of US uninsured population, it would make sense that medical tourism is an area worth looking into. Jamaica has a good, trained medical staff according to Hill and with the island already being a tourism destination there is no reason why this area could not be tapped into. The Caribbean as a whole should look to embrace this since there is a growing demand and the the payoff could be huge.

Favorite Internet Spots

In the past couple days I typed my name into Google to see the results and came up with quite a few hits. I also typed in Caribbean Business Digest to see the results. Funny thing is that a couple months ago when I type in Caribbean Business Digest there were no hits at all (not on the first fifty pages anyway) Now both came up which made me feel good.

Putting my name in (Mushtaq Maxwell) resulted in not only the magazine's website coming up but another of my favorite spots (www.helium.com). I guess my footprints are all over the internet now. But in a good way. I hope to build a portfolio of online content. Which provides an easier way to get items published.

Another of my favorite spots is the Fortune Small Business Blog. I have voiced my opinion on a few of the posts there which provided an opportunity for me to share what I have learned from my magazine launch. I think that all those with a business interest should take advantage of forums such as this.