How can we all contribute to make our island’s economy thrive?

We live in a pretty tough business climate, once you decide to start a new business you face a lot of challenges. Especially if you start a small business using little resources.

Many businesses compete against each other in order to succeed and gain more profit. At first sight it seems like a very normal thing to do because competition leads to higher productivity and innovation. In most cases this leads to lower prices and better products. 

But what if there was a better way? Imagine what we could achieve if we would truly work together to improve the productivity and innovation. What if I told you that I have a fabulous idea that would benefit all of us? It’s a simple idea: we all do better if we work together and invest in our future.

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

From a competitive economy to a cooperative economy

The alternative is called a cooperative based economy. An economy in where more than ever we work together. Most traditional businesses operate with the primary goal of turning a profit. This is a good thing, but a cooperative offers benefits to members (other businesses) that go beyond that. This is something missing in our economy.

A cooperative allows an association of people unite voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs. For example let’s say we have a group of farmers who are all in need of a specific tractor but only use this tractor once a month. A cooperative can facilitate the farmers with this tractor, this is much more efficient than having all the farmers buy the tractor individually. In other words: a cooperative facilitates you and others in the same business sector with resources so that you can all achieve your goals. A business begins as an idea in the head of a single person, who then runs with it.

A cooperative might be similar in the beginning, but soon changes because it requires a group of people with similar goals and needs to group together in order to progress the idea.

Last but not least

I would also like to address an issue that we have in our current society. Instead of encouraging our friends and relatives who want to start a business or follow their dreams we often bring them down. We must encourage each other to succeed.

With this mentality we must move forward and just remember that everyone wants to succeed. Just because someone is succeeding doesn’t mean it will effect you in a negative way. We should support each other and succeed together so that our island’s economy will thrive even more!