Flipping Grand Bahama

With painstaking detail the Minister for Grand Bahama, Hon Dr. Michael Darville spoke to a packed room on Thursday evening in Eight Mile Rock on the already implemented business concessions that has been put in place as of July 1, 2014. So all the businesses in Grand Bahama will be able to apply for duty free concessions ... provided they have a business license and the concessions they are asking for pertain to their business. Also of great interest, the owners with these concessions can now build duty free homes. Here I have put it rather succinctly but there are some complications but this is the gist of what will be taking place. A story was ran recently in the local daily about the first person to take advantage of this new business perk. Also of great interest was the representative of the Bahamas Entrepreneur Venture Fund who spoke of the funds that will be available to those persons who are in need of help to further their business ideas. Of course there are some thin...

Is the Grand Bahama Port Authority still for sale? Some years about, within the last five years, there has been a few rumours about persons who were interested in purchasing the "Port"and one that stuck out in my mind was the British Parliamentarian Lord Michael Ashcroft. This flirting idea I was made to believe was rejected. True or not, we are left to speculate. Earlier this year I was able to get my hands on another investor who wanted to purchase shares in the Grand Bahama Port Authority, I guess with the hopes of being the major shareholders promising the world. Their report was left with members of the Grand Bahama Port Authority and is called "the Flemming Strategy" which took a look at the island as it is (was in 2009) and gave their ideas which would bring in lots of money and jobs to the island, beginning with a $26 billion injection right away. The report was compiled by Global Fulfillment Services in 2008. But I wonder, what were the circumsta...

The great depression took place in the 1920s; the stock markets crashed again in the 80s and we had a great surprise when the markets crashed again in 2008/2009. Did you know that during each of these times there were people who thrived and even became millionaires? In the years 2004/2005 Grand Bahama went through the greatest devastation every, and still the island is suffering but there are people here still thriving. What is their secret and how can we call get in on it? Some years ago I realized my gift is not necessarily to run a business but to give ideas. I later took an entrepreneurial course so that I could put legs to  ideas. I had once thought of a business called Ideas Inc but never did anything with it, but that did not stop me from talking mainly with young people about how far they can go. As I have been saying my this blog for this past year, the main problem for many of us is our thought process and because we think we can't, we don't even try. What...

Funny enough I got this thought from my pastors sermon on Sabbath. But we all know this is usually meant in the negative - Don't start something and there will be nothing! I was listening out for the great things the Grand Bahama Port Authority and the Government of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas have for this island and it seems the great plans are a little ways off. On Friday as I was praising persons for their ideas that are starting things, I saw in The Freeport News that the East End Project is still coming.... but no dates were given. This project should be a lot of employment and more developments because now we will need more apartments out east for those who will move closer to work. The residual money earners are what I am looking at. Even with the big companies we presently have there are opportunities if we have the know how, to make a small thing better that can make us the world. Just this week I was listening to "Think and Grow Rich" and heard th...

I can never say thanks enough to the people who are reading this blog and hoping that someone, somewhere out there will be inspired to do something and begin to physically create the magic needed in Freeport/Lucaya, Grand Bahama. I was getting a big discouraged with what my eyes were seeing as I read the responses of others to my last blog. It seems that once seeing the word "Freeport" emotions of pity and despair on some people. I find this interesting and depressing ... hmmm But I see the potential. There is a lot of potential. But you have to see Freeport/Grand Bahama the way Wallace Groves saw it ... as land mass with a lot of financial potential. I could never believe that he would have used all of his own money to bring this to light... the secret to great wealth most of the time is to use someone else's' money. Find like minded persons to invest in your ideas, but it is also important to put some of your own money, time and sweat. I was thinking just ...

This past weekend for the first time Tedx GrandBahama was held here in the Canal House, Pelican Bay and I am so glad that I did not miss this event. Even more than that I had expected this event blew my mind away. I know that Bahamians are capable of mature intellectual discussions, but for a very long time I had not been any where to hear the ideas and thoughts that were not politically motivated. What I was visualizing in my last post I saw a glimpse of on Saturday just looking at the audience and hearing the speakers. Again I commend Earl and Katariah Taylor for bringing Tedx to Grand Bahama and hosting such a great day. I trust that as they continue to do this on an annual basis, more people will endeavour to take part and to sponsor. Prior to this event and after my last post on Friday I was ready to give writing this blog a sabbatical, but I could not after hearing so much. I wondered if I could put down some of the things then I remembered that this week w...

So, I was just thinking of what Grand Bahama would look like when the magic is brought back. I think of the numbers of people who would have moved here from around The Bahamas and around the world being a mixed and varied culture, like the United Nations. I see the businesses on the island thriving and new and innovative creations coming on stream that were not possible before. I see lots of Bahamian entrepreneurs savvy in new age equipment and not afraid of the internet. I see international business being done here without getting on a plane or even leaving your home. This is the way the world is going and the way will be thinking. I see the process of getting into business here being made a lot more streamlined and able to accommodate everyone within three to four weeks. You have to visualize it. A better life for you, and a better life for your family and friends, a better life for your country without everyone or anyone feeling threatened by foreigners ...