Get a Business in Dominica now

Anyone want a business in Dominica.

How about this; a Legal incorporated business registered for general business, taxed, registered, insured lease car, bank account, income generating property (worth EC$660,000) all for EC$680,000. Interested in a Dominican Business.

Why would you a non national want to buy another persons business if you are thinking of moving to Dominica.


1. If it has property you are not liable for land transfer taxes, in Dominica it could be as high as 20.5% for non nationals and in the case above it would be a saving of EC$135,000 as the seller of the business is liable for all taxes.
2. A company business account means you can start invoicing and receiving mail immediately without set up delays.
3. A business address is important
4. Resident and work permits become easier as you have a business and can employ yourself.
5. Car's are expensive buy or import and taking over a lease is much cheaper than buying saving in the region of EC$20,000 in this case.
6. Up and running website and hosting package avoiding weeks for search engines to pick you up.
7. Access to local and regional markets.

If your interested on finding out more contact Keith or Julia at info@ideaservices.org

Why I love doing business with the Government.....Not

I had a unique experience today.... I had to get money from the Government for services rendered. I waited in line for my cheque and efficiently received it, however I was shocked that it was not for the invoiced amount, apparently I have to pay stamp duty on all government cheques... Yes you have it, pay for the privilege of receiving payment of a invoice (in this case 50 cents). Now little old me.. wasn't going to take this so I asked to speak to someone to justify this and was politely told its stamp, everyone pays it. So I wanted to explanation why I should pay for the privilege of doing business with the government and could you investigate and either email the justification or telephone me with it....the lady looked at me as if I was mad and said "no you can phone me...Ahhhhh!!" Must be the Sensitised Public Private Sector inititive at work.

I now have the solution for the private sector, work out you invoice and add the stamp ad call it government surcharge.

Congratulations to the Dominica Association of Industry and Commerce and Mimi Piper for their excellent free workshop and to Abdellatiff (Ludwig) Oueniche the guest speaker, shame on all those who could of attended but chose not to.

Why doesn't anyone answer their emails

OK one thing that really irks me about Dominica is that so many people don't answer their emails. I think it is that people hope if they don't answer them the problem goes away. When the government or a business do not answer its emails or call you back on the telephone. If you don't respond promptly it tells your customers you think they are not important, you don't care about them and you cant manage customer relations. People that have not answered my emails:

I have just completed running a Customer Relations Workshop and all the attendees got the message.

Advice to all Dominican Businesses and the Government if you haven't got a policy on answering emails or you don't intend to use them a a tool for managing your customer relations don't have one.

Customer Relations Award goes to the taxi driver Eddie who works with Caribbean Sea View Apartments who picked up from Melville Hall a couple who were staying at the Apartments, then waited for them whilst they dealt with Liat about their lost luggage (there is a surprise....not), took them into town and arranged for a clothes shop to open so they could get some fresh clothing, then took them back to Mero, waited for them to change and then took them to the festival, the guests raved about how nice he was and what a good deal they got. Not bad for a guy who was only booked for a Airport pickup.

The Moral is: The extra bit makes the difference (he has had loads of work from the Guests over the weekend).

Well we survived hurricane Dean. A few lessons for any business person here.

1. Get a generator, you cannot work without power. Even in the absence of a storm you can be without power for some time.
2. Check a good Hurricane tracking map regularly.
3. Do as much work as possible before it hits.
4. Let all your international clients know you will be having problems for the next week or so
5. Expect your local clients to rebook times, they are in the same boat.
6. Be flexible and remember someone is worse off than you.
7. Don't expect to be on your PC or preparing presentations etc for the next week, see number 1.
8. Buy a bottle of rum, put your feet up and relax, as when the power is on you'll be working twice as hard to catch up.

Dean has gone and we were a lucky island, fortunately Dominica does not get many hurricanes. I was realy impressed about the way people checked up on everyone before and after and how quickly people were out and about with cutlasses and chainsaws.

Customer service award to DOWASCO the water company, they got our water back on exactly when they said they would after Dean. Its refreshing that a utility monopoly acts as if it has competition and cares about its customers. Also the set staff targets and expect staff to achieve them, managers to assist staff in achieving them and celebrate high performance........radical.

Money, Money, Money

OK, Here is a universal business truth, unless you get paid upfront expect to wait for your money. Often its not a unwillingness to pay, its a payment process problem, it takes ages to draft, approve and get cheques signed for payment.

Be strict about payments and don't fall for the smile, however always remember to be nice as money is very tight and cut some slack to the small guy, his cash flow is always critical and he may not be able to pay you until he gets paid. Sometimes just sometimes a little bit of consideration goes a long way.

If you are visiting the Island, stay at Caribbean Sea View Holiday Apartments, The company is taking over its management for 5 months in September due to the absence of the owner.

Anyway I am off to play with my new e-learning design software, unfortunately its raining so I cant watch the sunset, but the rum is still so good.

A busy time

Hi ages since my last post but I have been really busy. delivering program's for the National Development Foundation of Dominica, Training for the Red Cross, Job interview preparation etc.

I have had a positive couple of weeks, I have been asked to tender for 3 capacity building and training and development programme's, All 3 have come to me as I said before Reputation, Reputation, Reputation.

The most rewarding thing I have done recently is deliver a Job Interview Programme for the Dominica Grammar School 5th formers on behalf of the Rotary Club, some of these young school leavers have so much potential, I would put many of them up against their UK counterparts and expect them to beat the UK young people to the Job.

I was approached by the DGS head and asked if I would mind doing a half day a month business training with his next group of 5th formers as the students were so complimentary about the training they received. That's great to hear it from someone else.

Here is one universal truth about business here that exists world wide. When you speak to Dominican managers they say that their workers are so bad, my reply is usually "They must of had a spark that made you want to employ them, the trick is to find out what extinguished it."

Not surprisingly when you speak to the staff they say its their managers,....Ummm.

Before apportioning blame look in the mirror.

Excellence in Customer Service

Congratulations to Jollys Pharmacy, I wanted to go into their toy shop but it was closed due to restocking, I asked when it would be open, a lady without being asked offered to open it just for us, she then help us find items we wanted, then accompanied us next door and gave us what amounted to a personal shopping service and help me located everything I needed for my daughters party. Truly exceeding expectations.

Oh yes I will try to blog every few days.

Have a rum and watch the sunset and don't let it get you down.

Lessons in exceeding expectations

OK I will admit that my last two posts may of been a bit negative, but this one is a real positive.

Two lessons for Dominica

Lesson 1 Always strive to deliver the best you can it is really appreciated. Reputation + Quality + Innovation = a lack of vulnerability. I have been dealing with a client for the first time recently and the fact that I believe we delivered superior quality product has resulted in repeat business from a key target customer within our business plan, that was an expectation, but without always thinking deliver the best we can and thinking reputation, quality and inovation it wouldn't of happened.

Lesson 2. What goes around comes around. I did a small piece of work (1 day) some time ago for one of my first clients, this client required assistance above that contracted and as it was always small requests for assistance, they went on for a long time, I never charged as the person was also a friend. They then came to us with a second job, again small requests for assistance above agreed terms and never charged for. A couple of days ago they phoned us up and offered the company a management contract over a 6 month period (in a taget sector). What goes around comes around.

Customer Service Excellence

Hats off to New Charles Pharmacy for without question replacing free of charge an item that a customer said was not dispensed as it was not in their bag when they got home. No "are you sure you didn't drop it," or "you will have to buy another one" Just a smile and "of course we will replace it, you obviously have not got something you paid for".