Josanne Arnold, an entrepreneur at the BizBooster Incubator Programme of the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business (UWI-ALJGSB), has advanced to the final round of the Caribbean Call to Action Entrepreneurs Challenge. The 26-year-old Tobagonian and CEO of Got Green is a member of the first cohort of BizBooster, UWI-ALJGSB's Commercial Business Incubator Programme which provides innovative start-ups and existing companies with a wide range of financial and non-financial services to nurture these new companies and increase their long-term viability.
Arnold made it to the final stage of the competition after presenting on her start-up company at the three-day leadership and entrepreneurial boot camp. She will now compete for the grand prize of the opportunity to showcase her business at the United Nations Summit in New York in September and at the Global Leadership Coalition's First International Young Leaders Virtual Summit in October.
Arnold's start-up company, Got Green, will provide wholesale production and distribution of organic fresh produce to food service businesses such as hotels and restaurants, caterers and cafes.
The 100 per cent chemical-free produce will be grown at a greenhouse located in Whim Village, Tobago, using a method called aquaponics. Got Green will focus on gourmet produce such as kale and specialty lettuce like mesclun, butter and romaine lettuce, as well as patchoi, spinach and different types of herbs. She explained that her company is in the process of construction and will open next month.
The young entrepreneur also shared how she came to enter the keenly contested regional competition.
"My background is in sociology with certification in aquaponics so I joined BizBooster because I needed some business training. The experience at BizBooster so far has been great. Besides the entrepreneurial training, mentorship and opportunities for networking and funding that BizBooster offers, I am also being exposed to other opportunities such as this regional challenge. It was a Lok Jack staff member who recommended that I enter the competition, so I did."
Jacqueline Francois, Arnold's mentor at BizBooster, was very thrilled with the news and said Arnold's recent accomplishments was not surprising.
The CEO at Oscar Francois Limited said: "I enjoy working with Josanne because she has consistently shown that she has a passion for gaining knowledge, listening attentively, assimilating the knowledge she gained either from Lok Jack, from my experiences that I share with her or from the various industry leaders that I have introduced her to. She also has the required ambition needed to move her business forward and to make the sacrifices required."
An excited Arnold said her experience at the regional boot camp was very inspiring.
"The first day we had a leadership workshop and then we spent the last two days of the workshop learning business strategy and the importance of being creative and brain storming. We spent a lot of time generating new business concepts and then we'd brainstorm on how we could improve on these ideas and find ways to generate income so that the business can be sustainable. We also had to come up with ways to counteract how our competitors could derail our plans and kill our start-ups," she said.
It's easy to understand why someone like Arnold would emerge as a contender for the grand prize since the regional challenge is not all that is occupying the time of the busy young entrepreneur. Arnold already has a car rental and transportation business which she runs in Tobago with her boyfriend and they have just expanded the company to include hand-held courier services.
In addition, Arnold is in the process of starting an administrative services company for small businesses and has just signed on two people for this. However, Arnold remains excited and hopeful for her chances at the entrepreneurial boot camp.
Candace Brathwaite, manager of the BizBooster Programme could not contain her joy at hearing the news about Arnold."The ultimate goal of our Commercial Business Incubator programme is to contribute to the Trinidad and Tobago economy by helping small-to-medium businesses succeed and to help them compete at a global level," she said.
"The entrepreneurs in our incubator programme are therefore carefully chosen and have been identified as businesses with the potential to perform in international markets. It makes me happy to see Josanne's ongoing success and I look forward to hearing more in the future."Balraj Kistow, UWI-ALJGSB's programme director, Master of Small and Medium Enterprise Management, agreed with Brathwaite
He said: "Josanne has shown that she possesses the right attitude, creative skills and the potential to achieve global status for her company. It is these traits which made her a good candidate for our BizBooster Programme."The two persons chosen will be representing the Caribbean at these two global conferences. It is quite an honour and I wish Josanne all the best."
The boot camp is an initiative of the Global Leadership Coalition (GLC), A Million for A Billion (1M1B) and the Caribbean Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Livelihoods (CoESL) and aims to foster entrepreneurial activity across the region by targeting aspiring entrepreneurs, 18 to 29 years. The regional challenge was held from May 1 to 3 in St Lawrence Gap, Barbados, where 70 participants had to present their innovative proposals to a panel of judges who narrowed it down to 12 entrepreneurs to participate in the final stage of the competition.
During the next six months Arnold and the other 11 finalists will participate in an online course on the basics of entrepreneurship, as well as have weekly counseling sessions with volunteer mentors. At the end of this period, all 12 finalists will present their refined business concepts to the judges who will select two of the entrepreneurs to go the UN Summit and the International Young Leaders Virtual Summit.
The other 11 finalists are two other Trinidadians, Vijay Dialsingh and Korice Nancis, Janice McLeod and Shamoy Hajare from Jamaica, Devin Odlum of Antigua and Barbuda, Joshua Forte and Nikele Davis of Barbados, Jenell Pierre of Guyana, Willan Mark of Grenada, Magaran Joseph of St Lucia and Vincent Polak of Suriname.