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Growth of small businesses pushed
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Posted on Jan 16 2001
The Commonwealth Development Authority and the Northern Marianas College have agreed to combined efforts in order to facilitate the growth of economic activities in the Northern Marianas through the increased participation of small businesses.
Under the current setup, which is more of an informal partnership between the two agencies, NMC’s Small Business Development Center provides the necessary counseling and consultation for hopeful local entrepreneurs while CDA provides the needed capital to start up a business.
Government efforts should be fortified in order to guide the Commonwealth economy out of the more than two-year-old financial upheavals in Asia that fanned toward the Northern Marianas, leaving local businesses severely hurt.
The program assists local entrepreneurs determine the feasibility of a particular business activity that includes counseling and consultation on how well a specific area of investment can work in a given economic condition.
The College’s SBDC has counseled more than 250 local entrepreneurs and small business owners, and conducted more than 50 workshops with over 1,000 participants since January 1998.
A series of consultations with owners of small- and medium-scale businesses in the CNMI disclosed that a big number of failed investments were caused by their failure to keep track of their finances.
Experts mobilized by the development authority to do consultation sessions with managers of distressed businesses who seek CDA assistance have started pointing out the value of good bookkeeping.
NMC and CDA are working together with the United States Department of Agriculture and local chambers of commerce in developing workshops and seminars aimed at helping entrepreneurs and established small business owners learn and increase competencies in business management to help them become more competitive.
