'What we are trying to bring out in the training sessions are opportunities for the businesses to look out for. So rather than dwelling on, and crying over what is happening out there, you look at what is happening out there and see how best you can use it and benefit from it,' says Andrew Swaby.

Jamaica National Small Business Loans Limited (JNSBL) continued its monthly training of its clients with simul-taneous workshops in Mandeville and Ocho Rios on Thursday.

In Ocho Rios, about 60 BizGrow clients (those borrowing over four loans) drawn from the company's region five, comprising St Ann, St Mary and Portland, turned out at the Anglican Church Hall for the one-day workshop.

The training, conducted by personnel from the Jamaica Business Development Centre, covered several areas of business, including customer service, marketing, business management, financial management, taxation and strategies for coping with the global economic crisis.

The focus on the global economic crisis was an effort to assist the borrowers in surviving the current economic crunch, explained Operations Manager Andrew Swaby.

Opportunities

"With every crisis comes challenges, but with every challenge there are also opportunities," noted Swaby. "What we are trying to bring out in the training sessions are opportunities for the businesses to look out for. So rather than dwelling on, and crying over what is happening out there, you look at what is happening out there and see how best you can use it and benefit from it; and that is what we're trying to instil in our clients."

According to Swaby, it is in JNSBL's best interest that clients do well in their businesses as their growth means the growth of JNSBL.

Meanwhile, Frederick Young, credit supervisor, said the workshop was timely as it gave the customer the push to go further.

JNSBL offers loans for investment in three major areas - agriculture, manufacturing and service.

Loans are in categorised as followed: BizStart for persons just starting a business, BizGrow for persons in business over a year, BizEvents for persons staging an event. In addition, JNSBL offers the BizBoost loans and the TIF loan for small hotels and attractions.

In a corporate profile released by the company, JNSBL said it has grown over the seven years since it started, moving from a loan portfolio of 2,019 for a value of $37.9 million to 17,580 loans, for a value of $462.8 million.