NASSAU, BAHAMAS— A local small business consultant said yesterday that 75 percent of his clients and associates have ‘no plans’ for business post September.
Mark Turnquest, principal of Mark A Turnquest Consulting, said the business community needs a strategy ‘now’ that it can work with.
He said: “What we really want is for the powers that be to strategically reopen the country with medical and economic factors taken into the consideration. They need to speed up the process because many businesses are not going to survive. There must be a plan and it must be tactical.”
Turnquest is seeking permission to hold a march of 100 business persons on September 4 to draw attention to the plight of SMEs and provide recommendations to the Competent Authority and the Economic Recovery Committee.
Turnquest said that one of the key recommendations is that businesses be allowed three full days of operation and curb side service on the other work days for those able to do so.
“Seventy-five percent of my business clients and associates say that September is their last month,” said Turnquest.
“They have no plan for October. September might be it for many of them. They see no hope in sight and it’s very depressing. I am in a struggle myself. I’m in survival mode. I have had to become extremely creative.”
He added: One of the reasons I am organizing this march is because small businesses need a voice. There seems to be no strategy. Our main recommendation is to at least let us open three days a week and be able to do curbside the other days . A lot of people have spent money on rent, they have inventory tied up, they’re losing money and aren’t making a dollar.”
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