On May 19th 2016,  Ms. Lejia Melanie Gideon, General Manager, Enterprise and Innovation Division, Beltraide,   presented to a roomful of women from all over the country on the  role of the Small Business  Development Centre (SBDCBelize), Beltraide, in  creating economic prosperity through entrepreneurial development, business innovation and competitiveness.

Ms. Gideon shared an inspiring analogy, describing the process of opening a business to being similar to that of childbirth. She shared that in the same way an expecting mother awaits the birth of her child with eager anticipation and most times,worry, a new business owner worries over the success of his or her business. She explained that just as how family and friends offer guidance with  the care of the new child, Business Advisors at SBDCBelize  assist  business owners to nurture and grow their businesses.

In her presentation, Ms Gideon encouraged the women to explore their potential to become entrepreneurs by becoming a client of SBDCBelize and partaking in their free business advising sessions and year-long workshops offered currently in all districts.   She also shared information on the work of the Belize Training and Employment Centre (BTEC), another unit of Beltraide, which provides  various industry-specific job preparedness trainings in areas such as: Business Process Out-Sourcing (BPO), Front Desk, Bartending, Waitstaff, Basics of Care-Giving and more.

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She encouraged all women to take advantage of the opportunities offered to them by Beltraide and asked those interested to visit the offices or send an email guaranteeing that every query will be answered.

Beltraide, which operates within the portfolio of the Ministry of Economic Development, Petroleum, Investment, Trade and Commerce, aims to  enable a dynamic business environment  for Belize’s socio-economic growth  and looks forwards to an ongoing partnership with the Women’s Department which continues to encourage the economic development and empowerment of women through various programmes and projects.

The forum was an all day event and included other presentations from representatives of Credit Unions, the Cooperative Department, the Belize Enterprise for Sustainable Technology and many others.