STOP ASKING ONLY WHO WILL GIVE US JOBS — HOW DO WE BECOME JOB CREATORS?
Part Four of the “What Can We Build Next?” Series
In Part One, we went backwards into Guyana’s manufacturing history.
We reminded ourselves that Guyanese people manufactured matches, shoes, soap, refrigerators, garments, engineering products and other goods. We built, assembled, processed and exported.
In Part Two, we looked at our young people and asked whether we are spending too much time trying to push everybody into existing jobs instead of first discovering what they are naturally interested in and capable of doing.
In Part Three, we looked at the market.
We asked what people cannot find, what businesses need, what Guyana imports, what resources we already possess, what problems people complain about and where talent could meet an actual economic opportunity.
Now comes the fourth part.
And perhaps it is the most difficult question of all:
Who is going to create the jobs?
For generations, we have become accustomed to asking:
Who is hiring?
Where can I find work?
Which company has vacancies?
When will more jobs become available?
Those questions will always matter.
But if everybody is waiting for somebody else to become the employer, eventually we have to ask:
Who is the somebody else?
Someone has to build the business.
Someone has to take the idea and turn it into a product.
Someone has to buy the first machine.
Someone has to find the first customer.
Someone has to take the first risk.
Someone has to eventually say:
“I need another pair of hands. I need to hire somebody.”
That is where job creation begins.
Not Everybody Has to Become an Entrepreneur
Let us make this clear from the beginning.
I am not suggesting that every young Guyanese should become a business owner.
A country cannot function with everybody trying to be the boss.
We need excellent employees.
We need teachers.
Nurses.
Engineers.
Technicians.
Tradespeople.
Scientists.
Administrators.
Researchers.
Mechanics.
Public servants.
Farmers.
Factory workers.
Managers.
Accountants.
Designers.
Drivers.
And many other skilled people.
Some people genuinely prefer employment. They may enjoy mastering a profession without wanting the responsibility of owning a company.
There is nothing wrong with that.
But we also need another group:
people capable of creating enterprises that employ everybody else.
A healthy economy needs both.
The worker and the employer.
The technician and the company that employs the technician.
The designer and the business that needs the design.
The manufacturer and the people operating the production line.
A Business Does Not Have to Begin With Fifty Employees
Sometimes when people hear the word business owner, they imagine a large building, twenty employees, vehicles, offices and plenty of money.
Most businesses do not begin there.
Someone starts alone.
Perhaps they make something at home.
Perhaps they repair equipment.
Perhaps they sell a specialised product.
Perhaps they operate from a small workshop.
Perhaps they provide a digital service from a computer.
At first, that person does everything.
They manufacture.
They sell.
They answer the telephone.
They package.
They deliver.
They keep the records.
They clean.
They advertise.
Then something begins to change.
There are too many orders.
They cannot manufacture and deliver at the same time.
So they ask someone to help with deliveries.
Now one job has been created.
The orders increase.
They need someone to help with production.
Now there are two.
Eventually they need bookkeeping.
Three.
Someone handles customers.
Four.
Somebody manages stock.
Five.
Perhaps years later the little operation that began with one person has twenty workers.
That is how employment can grow.
Not every successful company started as a company.
Sometimes it started as one person solving one problem.
One Person's Talent Can Become Another Person's Paycheque
This is the part of entrepreneurship we do not talk about enough.
When someone develops a skill only for themselves, that skill may provide one income.
But when that person learns how to organise the skill into a business, it can eventually provide income for several people.
Imagine a young person who becomes excellent at furniture making.
At first, he makes one table at a time.
Then orders increase.
He needs another carpenter.
Then somebody to sand and finish.
Then somebody to deliver.
Then somebody to manage customers.
Eventually he may need somebody operating machinery.
One person's talent has now become five people's livelihood.
The same principle can apply to:
a garment workshop,
a digital agency,
an agro-processing business,
a repair centre,
a natural-products company,
a printing operation,
a small factory,
a landscaping company,
a construction business,
an animation studio,
a catering company,
a technology service,
or something we have not thought of yet.
That is why discovering talent matters.
We do not know which young person may eventually create work for others.
Instead of Only Teaching People How to Get a Job, Teach Some of Them How to Build One
Think about how much preparation goes into finding employment.
We teach people how to prepare a résumé.
How to dress for an interview.
How to answer interview questions.
How to apply for vacancies.
How to behave at work.
All of that is useful.
But where is the equivalent education for the young person who wants to become an employer?
Who teaches them:
how to calculate the true cost of a product?
how to price without losing money?
how to research a market?
how to negotiate with suppliers?
how to understand shipping?
how to manage stock?
how to hire someone?
how to train workers?
how to keep business records?
how to manage cash flow?
how to reinvest profit?
how to control quality?
how to deal with customers?
how to handle mistakes?
how to expand without expanding too quickly?
how to understand contracts?
how to protect a brand?
how to build something that can continue even when the owner is not standing there?
Those are skills too.
Entrepreneurship is not simply:
“Buy something and sell it.”
Building an enterprise requires an entirely different kind of education.
Guyana Is Growing — But Growth Alone Does Not Guarantee That Everybody Finds Their Place
Guyana's economy has been expanding rapidly. The Bureau of Statistics currently reports real GDP growth of 19% for 2025, while the official unemployment rate stood at 6% in the fourth quarter of 2025. (Bureau of Statistics)
Those are significant economic changes.
But a growing economy can still experience skills gaps.
The World Bank reported in 2026 that Guyana is facing shortages of qualified workers in expanding sectors and that training increasingly needs to be aligned with industries such as agro-industry, digital technology and other growing areas. (World Bank)
That tells us something important.
Economic growth creates opportunity.
But people still need the right skills, businesses, institutions and pathways to participate in that growth.
And some of those pathways should lead toward entrepreneurship and local enterprise creation.
About Foreign Workers: Let Us Ask a Harder Question
As Guyana develops, we increasingly hear complaints about foreigners coming into the country and taking jobs.
That conversation can become emotional very quickly.
But there is another way to look at it.
People have moved across borders for work throughout history.
Guyanese ourselves have travelled to other countries to work.
We have gone to the Caribbean.
North America.
Europe.
Other parts of the world.
And other people will also come where opportunities are growing.
So instead of spending all our energy asking:
“Why are foreigners taking our jobs?”
I believe we should also ask:
“Why aren't more of us creating businesses that provide jobs?”
That does not mean ignoring legitimate concerns about fair employment, wages, working conditions or opportunities for Guyanese.
Those issues matter.
But resentment alone creates zero jobs.
A factory creates jobs.
A workshop creates jobs.
A growing farm creates jobs.
A technology company creates jobs.
A garment business creates jobs.
A repair centre creates jobs.
A manufacturing operation creates jobs.
A successful service company creates jobs.
And sometimes the most powerful response to economic change is not:
“Keep everybody else out.”
It is:
“Let us become stronger participants in our own economy.”
What If We Became the Ones Doing the Hiring?
Imagine changing the conversation.
Instead of a young person saying:
“Nobody wants to hire me.”
Perhaps one day that person says:
“I just hired my first worker.”
Instead of:
“There are no opportunities.”
Perhaps:
“I found something people needed and built a service around it.”
Instead of complaining that a foreign-owned company has twenty workers:
“How do I build a Guyanese company that employs twenty people?”
That is not an easy question.
But it is a productive one.
It forces us to think about:
capital,
skills,
management,
quality,
technology,
markets,
training,
production,
and long-term planning.
And We Need to Stop Thinking Only About Self-Employment
There is an important difference between self-employment and building an enterprise.
Self-employment can be excellent.
You work for yourself.
You earn your own income.
You control your time.
But sometimes the business remains completely dependent on one person.
If that person stops working, the income stops.
Enterprise development asks another question:
Can what I created eventually operate with other people?
Can I train someone?
Can I document how the work is done?
Can I employ an apprentice?
Can somebody else manufacture part of the product?
Can somebody else manage customers?
Can the business eventually function without me personally doing every single task?
That is how a self-employed person begins becoming an employer.
Apprenticeship Could Be One of Our Most Powerful Tools
Remember the industries we discussed in Part One.
Factories did not contain only people who arrived knowing everything.
People learned.
Someone experienced taught someone new.
That knowledge moved from one generation of workers to another.
We need more of that thinking again.
Imagine if established:
mechanics,
carpenters,
seamstresses,
manufacturers,
electricians,
technicians,
farmers,
designers,
formulators,
computer specialists,
and business owners
each took one serious young person and taught them properly.
Not merely:
“Come and fetch this for me.”
Real training.
Let them understand the work.
Let them operate the equipment.
Let them learn why something fails.
Let them make mistakes under supervision.
Let them understand customers.
Let them eventually become capable of working independently.
A young person can attend training.
But there are some things only doing the work repeatedly can teach.
And Maybe the Apprentice Becomes Your Competitor One Day
Some business owners are frightened of teaching people because they think:
“If I teach this person everything, they will leave and compete with me.”
Maybe they will.
But look at that from another angle.
If that person leaves, establishes a business, employs three people and improves the industry, what has happened?
The economic base has grown.
Competition can be uncomfortable.
But competition can also improve:
quality,
service,
innovation,
pricing,
and customer choice.
The goal cannot be to keep knowledge locked inside one person's head forever.
If earlier generations had done that, much of what we know today would never have survived.
A Business Should Create More Than Profit for the Owner
Profit matters.
No business survives without it.
But a successful local business can create several layers of economic activity.
Consider one small manufacturer.
The manufacturer buys bottles from somebody.
Labels from somebody else.
Ingredients from suppliers.
Transport services.
Printing.
Equipment.
Cleaning materials.
Internet.
Advertising.
Repairs.
Packaging.
Perhaps accounting.
Perhaps photography.
Perhaps delivery.
So even before that business hires many workers directly, it may already be supporting other businesses.
That is why building local enterprises matters.
Businesses buy from businesses.
Money begins moving through networks.
One enterprise helps another enterprise survive.
Manufacturing Can Create Whole Chains of Employment
Think again about the match factory from Part One.
There was not simply:
factory + worker.
There was:
forest,
timber,
transport,
machinery,
chemicals,
maintenance,
packaging,
distribution,
retailing,
administration,
and export.
That is the difference between looking at a product and looking at an industry.
Now ask the same question about something modern.
Suppose a Guyanese company begins producing a piece of agricultural equipment.
Someone designs it.
Someone fabricates metal.
Someone supplies components.
Someone paints it.
Someone maintains machinery.
Someone packages parts.
Someone sells it.
Someone transports it.
Someone repairs it.
Someone trains the customer.
One product can create several occupations.
This is why Part One mattered.
History shows us how economic activity spreads outward.
Small Businesses Are Not Small in Their Importance
Guyana's manufacturing sector expanded by 20% in 2025, according to the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association. In 2026, the GMSA also launched its RISE programme specifically to help small and medium-sized businesses strengthen skills, resilience and enterprise capacity. (GMSAGY)
That tells us something.
Small enterprises are not an afterthought.
They can become part of industrial growth.
But we need to help more of them survive long enough to grow.
Many businesses fail before they ever reach the stage of hiring because the owner runs out of capital, prices incorrectly, buys too much stock, expands too quickly or does not understand the market.
That is why entrepreneurship education needs to include survival, not only motivation.
Start Small Enough That Failure Does Not Destroy You
This lesson deserves to be taught much more.
Young entrepreneurs sometimes believe:
“If I am serious, I have to start big.”
No.
Sometimes being serious means starting carefully.
Test the market.
Make ten.
Not one thousand.
Bring three.
Not fifty.
Sell them.
Listen.
Improve.
Then reorder.
The market will teach you.
One of the smartest things a small entrepreneur can learn is how to lose small while learning.
Because mistakes are coming.
Every business makes them.
The goal is not to build a business that never makes a mistake.
The goal is to build one that can survive its mistakes.
Then Reinvest
One of the hardest stages in a young business is deciding what to do when money finally starts coming in.
The temptation is:
“I made money.”
But revenue is not the same as profit.
And profit does not automatically mean money available to spend personally.
A growing business needs:
replacement stock,
equipment,
maintenance,
packaging,
marketing,
emergency reserves,
better technology,
and eventually wages.
If everything is removed from the business immediately, the business never develops enough strength to employ somebody else.
Sometimes today's profit has to become tomorrow's machine.
And tomorrow's machine may create next year's job.
Buy Equipment That Multiplies What Human Hands Can Do
There is another lesson from manufacturing history.
Machines do not automatically destroy employment.
Machines can also allow a tiny operation to produce enough to become economically viable.
One person making ten units manually may never have enough output to hire anybody.
A machine allows that person to make 100.
Now they need:
packaging help,
sales,
delivery,
maintenance,
administration.
Technology changes the type of work.
That is why young people need exposure not only to traditional hand skills but also to modern tools and machinery.
If we want higher-productivity jobs, people need the ability to work with equipment and technology.
The ILO's 2026 employment report emphasizes that productivity and movement into higher-productivity sectors are central to improving incomes and job quality over time. (International Labour Organization)
Teach People to Build Teams
There is another habit small entrepreneurs have to overcome:
“Nobody can do it like me.”
Perhaps that is true at first.
But if nobody else can ever do anything in the business, the owner has created a job for themselves — not an enterprise.
The next stage is:
How do I teach someone to do this properly?
Write down the procedure.
Measure ingredients.
Create standards.
Develop checklists.
Train.
Inspect.
Correct mistakes.
Train again.
That is how knowledge becomes a system.
And a system makes employment possible.
Quality Has to Be Non-Negotiable
If we want Guyanese businesses to grow and eventually compete beyond Guyana, supporting local cannot mean accepting anything because it is local.
That hurts the very movement we are trying to build.
Customers should be able to say:
“This is made in Guyana, and it is excellent.”
Not:
“Well, it's local, so make allowances.”
History gives us confidence.
Talent gives us ability.
Market research gives us opportunity.
But quality earns repeat customers.
That means:
testing,
standards,
proper materials,
consistency,
good packaging,
honest claims,
reliable service,
and continuous improvement.
Build for Guyana — Then Think Caribbean
Part One showed that Guyanese manufacturers historically supplied other Caribbean markets.
We should not lose that imagination.
A business may begin in Cane Grove.
Or Georgetown.
Or Berbice.
Or Essequibo.
But that does not mean its final market has to stop there.
If a product is good enough, perhaps Barbados wants it.
Perhaps Trinidad wants it.
Perhaps Jamaica wants it.
Perhaps Suriname wants it.
Perhaps the Caribbean diaspora wants it.
But export begins with quality at home.
Build something people trust here first.
Then grow.
The Goal Is Not to Replace Foreigners — It Is to Strengthen Ourselves
This distinction matters.
We do not have to build Guyanese businesses because we are against anybody else.
We build them because we are for our own development.
There is enough room in a growing economy for partnerships, international investment, imported expertise, local workers and Guyanese-owned businesses.
But Guyanese people should not stand on the sidelines of their own economic transformation.
We should be:
workers,
managers,
technicians,
researchers,
investors,
suppliers,
manufacturers,
entrepreneurs,
and employers.
The stronger our own capacity becomes, the stronger our position becomes when working with anybody else.
Ask a Different Question
The next time somebody says:
“Foreigners are coming and taking all the jobs,”
perhaps we should ask:
“What business can we build that creates ten more?”
When somebody says:
“Nobody will employ me,”
perhaps somewhere in that conversation we should also ask:
“What are you good at?”
When somebody says:
“There is nothing here,”
ask:
“What is missing?”
When we discover what is missing:
“Who has the talent to provide it?”
When we find that person:
“What training, equipment, financing or mentorship would help them begin?”
And once they begin:
“How do we help that business survive long enough to employ somebody else?”
Now we are talking about development differently.
Imagine the Change
Imagine if ten young people each created a business that eventually employed five people.
That is fifty jobs.
Imagine 100 young entrepreneurs doing it.
That is 500.
Imagine some of those businesses growing beyond five workers.
The point is not the exact number.
The point is the direction of thinking.
We usually look at unemployment as a problem employers must solve.
But some of tomorrow's employers are among today's unemployed young people.
We simply do not know who they are yet.
This Is Why We Began With History
Now the four parts connect.
Part One: We Did It Before
Guyana has a history of manufacturing, production, skills and exports.
Part Two: Find the Talent
Our young people possess abilities that cannot be discovered by forcing everybody into the same occupations.
Part Three: Find the Market
Talent becomes economically useful when it meets a real problem, customer or unmet need.
Part Four: Build the Enterprise
The person with the talent solves the problem, builds the business, grows carefully and eventually becomes capable of employing others.
That is the cycle.
History → Talent → Opportunity → Enterprise → Employment
And then something interesting happens.
The job seeker becomes the job creator.
We Need to Change the Question We Ask Our Young People
Perhaps we should not stop asking:
“What do you want to be?”
But add:
“What do you want to build?”
“What problem would you like to solve?”
“What skill would you like to master?”
“What could you create that somebody would pay for?”
“What could you eventually teach somebody else?”
“Could what you build one day employ another Guyanese?”
Those questions open a different kind of future.
We Did It Before. We Can Build Again.
Our grandparents and parents worked in factories that some young Guyanese today have never heard about.
They manufactured products that some of us later assumed could only come from overseas.
That history should not make us live in the past.
It should challenge us.
Previous generations created with the tools available to them.
This generation has access to technologies they could never have imagined.
So what are we going to do with them?
We cannot spend the next generation only asking:
“Who is going to give us a job?”
Somebody has to become the person who answers:
“I have a job available.”
And somewhere in Guyana right now may be a young person with a skill, an idea or a curiosity that could eventually become a business employing other people.
Our job is not to tell that person exactly what to become.
Our job is to help them discover what is already inside them, understand what the market needs, gain the skills to develop it, and give the idea enough room to grow.
Because Guyana does not only need more people prepared to work.
Guyana also needs more people prepared to build.
And perhaps the next factory, workshop, studio, technology company, manufacturing business or Caribbean brand will begin much more quietly than anybody expects:
with one young person asking,
