YOUNG aspiring entrepreneurs in the Caribbean are being invited to apply to a new centre opening in Montego Bay in September with the promise to help nurture and grow their businesses.

Backed by £2 million over the next decade from one of the companies of its founder, British billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson, the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship Caribbean seeks to create and grow small businesses, ultimately generating jobs for the region.

“Rather than attempting to teach entrepreneurship, it will seek to provide aspiring entrepreneurs with practical business skills, access to coaches to offer guidance, mentors to share their experiences and access to financing opportunities to enable growth,” a news release on the centre said.

Interested applicants aged 18 to 35 have until June 13 to apply to the centre online at bransoncentre.org. Preference will be given to tourism-related interests as the venture is funded by Virgin Holidays, the United Kingdom’s largest long-haul holiday company.

However, the centre is also looking for the following criteria as determined by Virgin Holidays and Virgin Unite, the non-profit foundation of the Virgin Group:

* Great Potential. Do you have a small business that is really starting to fly and is ready to go to a whole new level?

* Savvy business beginnings. Are you aware of market potential and can you look at the horizon to map your future?

* A ‘more than money’ approach to doing business. Are you thinking social and environmental, and how your business might do good and make money?

* Business street smarts. Can you quickly assess the bottom line of an opportunity?

* A dollop of risky realism. Do you know when to move ahead and when to stop and take stock?

* Cartloads of energy, pace, enthusiasm, and unstoppable drive. You never say never.

* A pair of big ears. Listeners are the ones being trageted — people who can act on advise, improve and grow.

* An elevator pitch about your business that you deliver brilliantly again, again and again.

* Worldly wise owls. You will know about the social and environmental aspects that will impact your business and you’ll have plans as to how to maximise or mitigate against them.

* You recognise your weaknesses, but play to your strengths.

Commenting on the Branson Centre’s chief development director Lisa Lake said, “The region has so much talent and the centre is a fantastic opportunity to create an active and effective hub for that to be harnessed, acting as a force for good by supporting aspiring entrepreneurs.”