This morning, 200 business-minded Belizeans across the country participated in the first day of an entrepreneurship program hosted by the Belize Natural Energy Charitable Trust.
It's called the "Dare to Dream Big" program. The organizers want to encourage budding entrepreneurs to pursue their business idea by providing them with a baseline of professional skills necessary to survive in the competitive private sector environment.
At the end of the program, 5 out of those 200 participants will be selected for grant funding of up to 10 thousand dollars to finance their operations. The Belize City cohort of participants gathered at the Hub Resource Center for the boot camp training sessions, and our news team stopped by this morning.
Here's what the organizers and a few of the participants had to say about the initiative:
Sherlette Neal - Project Director, Dear to Dream Big Programme
"The Dare to Dream Big program is in its second year, and it's an initiative of the Belize Natural Energy Charitable Trust, and it was birthed during the pandemic, where the need was seen to really focus on entrepreneurship and to really help to grow entrepreneurship. So, we're in the second year of this program, which is also a grant-funding program. So, following all of these training that we're doing countrywide, starting today in Belize City, 5 participants will be selected and awarded grant funding of up to $10,000. So, it's really a competition, and this is where it all starts. We have over 200 applicants, and they go through an innovative booth-camp-style training for the next two days. Following that, we'll select 50 participants and then narrow it down to 20, and those are the 20 who would compete for that funding."
Albert Garcia - Chairman, BNE Charitable Trust
"The reason is it really serves what we believe at the core, which is empowerment. So, the Belize Natural Energy Charitable Trust was actually put together for this same purpose, to create empowerment opportunities for Belizeans. So, by doing this, we feel like we're allowing them to really tap into that potential within themselves. What we're asking them to do is dare to dream big, meaning we don't want them to limit themselves."
Bryson Bucknor - Entrepreneur/Participant
"My business is Sargo Belize. What we do, basically, you could say that we're a sargassum industrial company, and what we do is we try to find a solution to the sargassum problem that we have in Belize at the moment."
Amanda Taylor - Entrepreneur/Participant
"So, basically, my business idea - well, it's still in the planning stage. It's called Grand Belize Destination Events and Weddings. So, basically, it's taking events to another level here in Belize. So, we have a couple of companies or businesses here that do decorate and a very few that actually do planning. But, what I have noticed is that the companies that do the planning cater mostly to foreigners. So, my business plan is to give those services so our locals also, at a rate that they can afford."
"The reason why I decided to become a part of this program is basically to become more knowledgeable in terms of marketing and advertising and how I can build my business and my brand. So, that's basically why I'm here. And also hopefully -."
Daniel Ortiz
"The funding."
Amanda Taylor
"[Laughs] Yes, the opportunity to be funded, right so. So, it's an honor to be here and to be given such an opportunity to gain more knowledge in terms of business."
Daniel Ortiz
"Ma'am, you're competing against 199 other contestants. That's tough and stiff competition."
Amanda Taylor
"Yes, I know it is, but so far, I'm the only one in this field that has applied - as far as I know - in Belize City. So, I think that gives me a little bit of an advantage."
The workshops will continue tomorrow.
