COLE BAY--The online business incubator CaribConnect sponsored by the European Union (EU) funded programme Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium sized Enterprises COSME was launched last week for the first time in St. Maarten at the Produce Wealth Revolution (PWR) agency in Cole Bay.
COSME has launched the online business incubator CaribConnect in four of the Caribbean Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) Bonaire, Curaçao, Aruba and The Cayman Islands, so far. CaribConnect.net is simple to use and is currently free to anyone conducting or wishing to conduct business in the Caribbean.
There are three profiles for registration in CaribConnect.net: Entrepreneurs, Mentors and Investors. CaribConnect has over 500 registered businesses and over 70 mentors in its Caribbean database.
Leslie Abell, part of the original development team from the Netherlands gave a presentation of CaribConnect.net to a network of administrators and to the business community with additional input from COSME Programme/GOPA Team Leader Diana Hendrickson-Fleming.
The event was organised for leading educators and entrepreneur support individuals in St. Maarten. Those participating in the workshop learnt how to register and use CaribConnect.net.
Once registered, CaribConnect offers entrepreneurs and business owners online tools such as templates for business plans and financial plans and educational opportunities. Interested persons should register on the COSME Facebook page.
COSME has provided business planning support to PWR Agency founder and Chief Experience Officer CXO Ife Badejo providing a variety of services to help entrepreneurs achieve success in addition to its meeting and co-working spaces.
The PWR Agency space promises to be an energising location for entrepreneurs to rent a private office, collaborate, hold meetings or just drop by to connect and work with other like-minded people for the day.
The PWR Agency also offers front desk service and ample parking. Research has shown how physical incubator space helps entrepreneurs stay connected and motivated to achieve even greater success.
“Incubators have the potential to help transform economies,” said Badejo. “This is the aim of The PWR Agency, to help transform our economy one entrepreneur at a time. Each entrepreneurial idea is a building block of wealth, solutions, and social change.
“To build a resilient, innovative, and thriving economy we need incubators to provide the ecosystem of much needed support, expertise and services for the entrepreneur.”
CaribConnect.net was designed to empower and to connect entrepreneurs and business owners through information sharing and business matching of mentors and investors. Critical to its success is the promotion and registration of this online incubator. Business persons who are interested in accessing resources such as mentorship, suppliers and or investors and growing are encouraged to register to attend the CaribConnect event on COSME’s Facebook page.
The COSME programme specialises in the development of the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the 12 Overseas Countries and Territories, and was launched on April 1, 2014 on Tortola, British Virgin Islands. The overall objective of the programme is to contribute to the sustainable economic diversification and prosperity of Caribbean Overseas Countries and Territories by improving the competitiveness of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in the participating Territories.
