Business Owners, Aspirants, Taught Best Practices At Banco Popular’s Entrepreneurship Forum

Banco Popular’s Entrepreneurship Forum held to educate business owners on how to successfully grow their operations, including best practices of seeking capital for expansion, saw its second of a three-part series Tuesday on St. Croix at the University of the Virgin Islands’ Great Hall. There, a sundry of businesspeople, along with those looking to turn their ideas into solid, money-making companies, heard from a number of experts on a variety of related topics.

The first event was held in August on St. Thomas, and the third is scheduled for the third quarter of 2019 in the British Virgin Islands. The series, however, won’t end in 2019, said Oran Roebuck, senior vice president and division manager of the Virgin Islands Region of Banco Popular. “We’re going to continually do them throughout the islands,” she said.

Ms. Roebuck said the need for educating local businesses remains paramount in the face of a constantly changing capital market. “I hope to give a better sense of understanding of how banking has changed and how we can access capital in our community to support sustainable growth, particularly of our small businesses and new businesses entering the market,” she said.

A diverse group of individuals attended, including those with creative ideas who came seeking guidance on how to structure their plan into a business opportunity, Ms. Roebuck said. Others with established businesses also attended to either seek information on how to overcome a challenge, or to glean knowledge on new options to grow their operations. New entrepreneurs were in attendance as well in search of sustainability ideas.

Small businesses in the territory have oftentimes spoken of the difficulty in accessing capital to help grow their business, an achilles heel that inhibits the kind of robust growth in the private sector that drives an economy. Ms. Roebuck said the entrepreneurship forum series includes a wealth of information on how to overcome this hurdle.

“Banking has changed over the years particularly with the financial crisis a few years back. We’re no longer able to lend on simple character; everything now is on a cash basis and we’re regulated very heavily, and there are increasing regulatory requirements,” Ms. Roebuck said. “That’s why it may seem more difficult to access capital now. So we think it’s very necessary at this junction to educate, educate, educate, to have the community be aware of how to prepare yourself to present your plan to the bank. It’s the same as if you’re going to a job interview. You get a coach, you learn how to prepare your résumé, you learn how to present yourself to that coach. So in banking we’re doing the same thing.”

Ms. Roebuck said the information and best practices being provided at the forums are not specific to Banco Popular, but are rather global and essential for businesspeople of all kinds.

Speakers included both local experts, Banco Popular officials from Puerto Rico, and industry professionals.

Banco Popular is the largest banking institution in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is leading by both assets and deposits as of December 31, 2018.