As of June 30th many employees of RBTT Bank will be out of a Job. Very soon the employees of First Caribbean Bank in Carriacou will be facing the same fate. I can count a number of organizations that have laid off a huge percentage of their workers in the past 2 years in Grenada; things are looking bleaker every day.
Unemployment is very high, and in my calculations it is in the 40% range; even though officially it’s much lower than that. How easy would it be to find a Job in an economy that’s currently “laying off” people to cut cost and deal with the new adjustment programmes being implemented by the government? My guess is, not very easy.
If finding employment is getting more difficult every day and more positions are being made redundant in both the private and public sector, shouldn’t there be some sort of alternative? Why is it that people are still going out job hunting? I believe that the answer to this is that Grenada has developed a culture of job seekers. Our schools have trained us all to be employees, to develop the employee mindset. This employee mindset is what is helping damage our economy.
A new culture needs to be bred within our society; a culture of entrepreneurship, a culture where people are not only seeking jobs, but also job creators. With more and more people entering the labour force, and less and less jobs being created, this will lead to serious problems for the country: economic instability and political and social unrest.
Something needs to be done to help foster this culture of entrepreneurship. Persons need to know that they do not have to go looking for jobs. Instead, they can create their own! The Government need to finds ways to provide incentives for entrepreneurship by providing support, training and tools for entrepreneurs. Also entrepreneurship needs to be a subject taught in school. Business management and accounting and other subjects offered in our schools are taught from the perspective of a prospective employee and not from the standpoint of entrepreneurs. Products of this school system end up being successful managerial capitalists. However there is a need for real capitalists, those who will see an opportunity and take a calculated risk to combine factors of productions and create their own path in life.
While unemployment may be high in this time, and many people are home wondering what they will do. There are many opportunities out there that persons can make use of:
- Freelance Opportunities- Sites such as Freelancer.com which is the world’s largest freelancing, outsourcing, and crowdsourcing marketplace for small business. With over 11 million users, you can hire a freelancer to do your contract work at a fraction of the cost. If you have a skill or talent, you can register on the site as a freelance worker and bid for projects. For example, if you are a graphic designer, you can go on the site, register and bid for many of the thousands of freelance projects available and generate an income from this.
- Fiverr.com- This is similar to freelancer.com where you can register freely and do freelance work for people and get paid to work.
- Network Marketing- This is another big avenue that is steadily growing. Persons can join a networking marketing business and build an enterprise from there for a very low cost. Some popular network marketing opportunities available are Syntek Global and Oregano Gold. Take a look at some at some of these opportunities and see if it’s something that can work for you.
While these opportunities may not work for everyone, they are worth looking into. It can be the start you are looking for as an aspiring entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is what will be able to save our economy and it’s about time we begin to give it the attention it needs. It is time for students be given the option of creating their own jobs as opposed to leaving school and searching for Jobs.
Finally amidst everything, to be successful as an entrepreneur, one needs to Think Big, Work Smart and Hustle Hard.