The Cayman Islands Small Business Association was formed in 2009 to represent the specific interests of small businesses. Rhonda Kelly, the president of CISBA, says she wanted to do something for small businesses for years and when she mentioned the idea of launching an advocacy and interest group, the feedback from small businesses owners was resoundingly positive.

The political environment also appeared to be favourable, as the premier mentioned small businesses in many of is speeches and the topic became a sort of “political football”, says Kelly.

The initial meeting of the organisation was already very productive in addressing all objectives and formulating a mission statement, she says. “That was very easy to do because despite the variety of businesses that were in that meeting, everybody was feeling the same thing.” 

Encompassing small businesses as diverse as a nail salon, event organisers, IT companies and a dental clinic, member firms are united by the need for a true representation of their interests as well as a common exposure to the current state of the economy.

“I have owned my small business since 2002 and we have had challenges, but we never had challenges like we had this past year,” she says. “A lot of the small businesses that I talk to are going through the same thing.”

Although not all the issues faced by small businesses are the result of the recession, most are amplified by the economic situation.

Other business organisations certainly have their purpose and merits but they are often unable to speak specifically for small businesses, says Kelly.

CISBA, in contrast, is going to tackle a number of issues identified by its membership. To this end the association has formed subcommittees that will formulate action plans and constructive proposals that can then be submitted to either government or business partners.

For example, Kelly says: “We are going to fight for small retailers.”

A banking and financing subcommittee is currently preoccupied with the conditions offered to small businesses in terms of financing and banking fees. Large retailers such as supermarkets for instance pay lower rates for the use of debit cards by their customers than smaller retailers, explains Kelly. “But small companies are the ones that cannot afford it.”

She adds: ”We want to find a way to leverage our power with the banks in order to get these kinds of fees and rates lowered and show that we do have the numbers that are worth listening to.”

Health insurance will be another area where small businesses may benefit from better terms if they were represented by CISBA, she says.

Fees are also an issue as far as the government is concerned. “There is no way you can justify a company the size of Cable and Wireless paying the same kind of work permit fee that I pay for a manager,” Kelly says.

“There has to be a scale and it has to be fair and equitable across the board.”

In order to implement such a differentiation in future legislation, the law would first have to define what constitutes a small business. Current plans define a small business as having fewer than 10 employees, not including the company owners. This definition may in the future also feature a financial component through which companies can demonstrate that they qualify for certain exemptions or lower fees.

CISBA has adopted the definition. Thus to become a member of CISBA a business must have less than ten employees.

Further issues the association is currently concerned with are the problems that businesses have with debt collection and the small claims court.

“The judicial system is quite cumbersome,” says Kelly,”so we have founded another subcommittee that is going to deal with judicial issues in regards to helping small businesses get through these things and get through them quicker.”

In addition to identifying these problem areas for small businesses and formulating constructive proposals, CISBA will offer cross-promotional and knowledge sharing benefits. Cross-promotion is endorsed by the organisation and Kelly explains that members “have been able to recommend each other, give each other work and support each other”.

Many members, she points out, are willing to share their knowledge and experience, for example in IT or marketing, with other members for free. Moreover the association plans to host  presentations by successful local entrepreneurs.

CISBA started to take official memberships in January 2010. Some obstacles remain. Its application to be recognised as a nonprofit organisation is still being processed. The near-term objective is to grow the membership to gain more political weight with the government and be in a better negotiating position with business partners.

The government has already expressed interest in what the organisation has to say and Dwayne Seymour, the minister who is tasked with small business issues has attended a couple of CISBA meetings.

“We have not really heard a lot from that, but to be fair we have not given solid proposals yet.” The association’s executive committee is due to meet in September to formulate more definitive plans.