The Youth Economy Agency has partnered with local chartered accountants to help young entrepreneurs improve their financial management, strengthen record-keeping and better understand their tax obligations.
The interactive Ask the Accountant forum, held on Tuesday, November 10, in observance of International Accounting Day, gave business owners direct access to accounting professionals for guidance on financial challenges affecting their enterprises.
The agency’s Training and Development Officer, Olivia Jn Baptiste, said the session addressed concerns ranging from bookkeeping and financial records to cash flow management.
“We have to sort of identify the needs of our young entrepreneurs and basically curate training programmes to meet those needs,” she said.
Jn Baptiste said the collaboration allowed participants to ask questions and receive advice tailored to their businesses.
“We figured that it’s an ideal opportunity for us to work with those accountants so they can get the one-on-one that they need with those accountants, so they can ask all the questions that they do have as it relates to the financial aspect of their businesses,” she added.
President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Eastern Caribbean, Andrea St Rose, said the discussions focused on financial practices essential to emerging businesses.
“Record-keeping, bookkeeping, we looked at cash flow and we looked at tax management because we figured that these are critical issues that need to be addressed for small, for upcoming small business entrepreneurs,” St Rose said.
She said the organisers also sought feedback from participants to better understand their circumstances and the challenges they face in managing their businesses.
One observation, she noted, was that many participants operated under registered business names rather than through incorporated companies.
“It was surprising to me that most of the young entrepreneurs are really not incorporated, that they are performing, you know, as a business name,” she said.
The forum formed part of the agency’s efforts to equip young entrepreneurs with the financial skills needed to build sustainable businesses.
