SUMMARY

15 Hints to Entrepreneurial Success: Lessons from a Caribbean Business Woman outlines the dos and dont’s in the business world from a Caribbean perspective.

Watkis-Porter, a Jamaican, is CEO of Patwa Apparel Limited and its affiliate brands 10 Fyah Side and Print Pro. She pulls from her own experience of overcoming a series of personal struggles and obstacles in the business world to encourage budding and even long-time entrepreneurs who doubt their ideas and abilities. Key to achieving this, she says, is changing one’s mindset.

Watkis-Porter dedicates an entire section to perseverance, which she sees as another key to business success. In this section, she tells inspiring back stories of famous contemporary businesses such as: Apple, KFC and McDonald’s.

Closer home, she uses Lascelles Chin, Usain Bolt and Tessanne Chin, and their determination to achieve the success they experience today, as examples to follow, urging readers to “speak positive even when others are saying otherwise”.

The author gives explicit details on planning, financial management, marketing and customer service — other key things that one must master to excel in the business world.

15 Hints to Entrepreneurial Success is both manual and a memoir, and a is perhaps the first road-map to success in a Caribben context, according to executive director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency Pamela Coke Hamilton.

WHY ITS WORTH READING

Aspiring entrepreneurs should use this as a guideline because:

• As the title suggests, it gives the expertise of a successful Caribbean business woman.

• It’s very motivational. The author not only tells readers what mental and physical strategies they will have to employ, she makes it personal by sharing her own story.

• It stresses the importance of setting specific goals.

• It pushes you to find your motivation to achieve your goals.

• It offers sound advice on what to expect while on your journey to success.

• It teaches that sacrifices must be made to achieve what you want.

• It lists local companies critical to a prosperous business operation.

• It’s an easy read that covers the basics of starting your own business.

• It contains a how-to about writing a business plan, which is a part of the first stage in the business process.

— Falon Folkes