Page 18 - WEEK 50 Casino Newspaper Ad extracts

A15
LOCAL Thursday 13 december 2018

Encouraging Creative Entrepreneurship within the Aruban CCI

Continued from Page 14 So, one of the most vital steps moving forward Last weekend, in the main city center, Oranjes-
is to promote cultural or creative entrepreneur- tad, Idea together with the government and
Other challenges faced by SMEs include a gen- ship through specific vocational-training initia- other stakeholders held the first “Kidspreneurs
eral lack of business skills relating to marketing tives. Creative practitioners can enhance their with big ideas” event. Several children from dif-
and financial management, information asym- capacities through different types of training, ferent after school programs around the island
metries and resource constraints affecting ac- such as capacity building activities. Think about participated in a project where they learned
cess to up-to-date technologies. formal professional education, informal train- what it means to be an entrepreneur.
ing and specific training programs for the vul-
Most creative entrepreneurs in the cultural field nerable ones in our community; women, the wThis project went hands on and encouraged
lack a business mindset and this creates a lot of youth and the disabled. This touches the topic the children to come up with products they
bottlenecks in the process of consolidating their of social entrepreneurship, which is when doing could sell and went as far as creating all the
business idea. Creators are known for their free business also contributes to solving a social is- products for the final event. All the children
minds, artistic outlooks in life and find it hard to sue. Having this mindset is also extremely posi- were standing at their booths with their prod-
commercialize their craft to retain economic tive within a CCI, because you become more ucts and had the full-on experience of being
value of their production. The essence in hav- inclusive as an industry and community. developing an idea, making their product, and
ing a creative business is to create economic selling it to the customers at the fair.
flow within the industry and to create econom- A positive development for all creators is the
ic value on creativity, which can be realized on department of Idea at the Department of Eco- In the end, besides all the challenges, the aim
Aruba, if the right knowledge is practiced. nomic Affairs of Aruba. Idea has the outlook of for creative entrepreneurs should always be to
proving extensive assistance, free of charge include innovative practices as strategies to
Moving Forward to all entrepreneurs who want to start a small combat common challenges when it comes
With the outlook for the future Aruban CCI, business. Idea helps entrepreneurs on general to creating economic value of their art or cre-
there are several things that can be done or knowledge of starting a business, getting ac- ation. Knowledge and education in this sense
focused on to ensure positive developments. cess to credits, technology, marketing and sev- is crucial and imperative in order to sustain the
One power of a community is in its education. eral other important tools. effective growth of creative businesses.q

Thaïs G. Franken is a Master Student at the University of Maastricht in The Netherlands and Graduate School of Governance
| UNI-MERIT. Aruba Today met this remarkable young lady during an interview for our newspaper. Her ambitions, her drive,
her passion and her happy forthcoming made a big impression and out of this came the mutual desire to work together.
Aruba Today is more than happy to announce Thaïs as our columnist. Her column Creative Islander will appear every two
weeks on Thursday in Aruba Today. Welcome to the club Thaïs.