If you are an entrepreneur or aspiring to be one, you are aware of the steep cost of getting a startup business going, but today Beltraide made that start up process for 14 entrepreneurs, a bit easier with a seed grant for their business. The entrepreneurs told us how this grant will significantly assist in the growth of their business.
Omar Castillo, Senior Business Advisor, SBDC Beltraide
"Today we are celebrating the hard work of all these entrepreneurs here. This was a 3 month process, they really had to buckle down and do a lot of work. It took place in 3 phases; there were 2 workshop phases, each followed by fieldwork. The approach we took it's not just feeding you information, but actually going out and putting it to use, so interacting with the market, you customers finding out what's the actual needs because as entrepreneurs we fall victim to thinking that we have the perfect product. You don't know until you actually interact with your market. Here at SDBC Belize and Beltraide like our mantra say "making small business happen" we want to see mindsets change, so programs like these and resources that SDBC Belize offers we believe could do wonders in not only helping a few people, but changing entire mindsets and that's the direction we want to take Belize."
Courtney Weatherburne
"What inspired you and your son to write this book?"
Sofia Marsden, Writer
"Well you know we were thinking of business, of how young people should know what happened in the past of older people reminiscing on what happened in the past. We've been trying for years and years. We put in a lot of work, a lot of time in developing and we heard about Beltraide and we went to the training. It was intense and everything but we made it through."
Derrick Cruz, Tilapia Farmer
"It was hard work and we learned various things and it was very educational. This money will help us in many ways. For us it will be our seed capital because we are just starting our business. We have done many research that we are sure that we will succeed in this business. This business is virtually untapped, so we will use our theoretical knowledge as well as our practical knowledge to put forward this business. This package will help us in many ways. We need to develop the ponds that will be used for Tilapia and this package will be perfect for us to start. We can actually start this month by creating the pond, creating the pipeline that will run water to the pond, actually promoting the business, creating banners, raising innovations and those things and then this package will also help us to put the product forward on the market."
Maria Villanueva, Owner, Marvelous Sauces
"It will help my business to grow because I will be able to manufacture in mass production. I also am getting equipment that will help me with the bigger parts; stoves and then then I will have to do marketing and get the bottles that I want, my labeling and it will look more professional. This seed grant is very important with my business because it will help to start my business off and to give it a jump start."
About 100 entrepreneurs applied for the grant but only 14 were chosen. 10 of the 14 were given $14,000 while the others were given $7,000. Castillo states they hope to make this small business initiative an annual one.
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