All small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners need invaluable advice and counselling as to how to grow their business and move to the next level.

To address that need, one of the world’s leading auditing firms Ernst & Young will be hosting its Entrepreneurship Academy from today (May 1) at the Hyatt Zilara in Montego Bay, St James.

The workshops and panel take place between 1:30 pm to 5:50 pm with the networking cocktail party from 5.:0 pm to 7:30 pm.

This is part of the EY Strategic Growth Forum Caribbean which this year is being hosted in Jamaica.

The event is being held between Wednesday to Saturday, May 4.

Audrey Hinchcliffe is the founder and chair of Manpower& Maintenance Services (MMS). She started her company 34 years ago at the age of 50 and it has gone on to become the leader in its field. She started with just two contracts, the Tony Thwaites Wing of the University Hospital of the West Indies and the Spanish Town Hospital.

Today MMS employs more than 3000 people.

Of the irrepressible Audrey Hinchcliffe, former prime minister PJ Patterson recalled when she first started MMS, saying, “I’m not here to work for anybody any longer. I am here to start a business of my own.”

Hinchcliffe, the author of four books, holds a Master of Science degree in Health Administration from Long Island University, New York.

Of MMS, Hinchcliffe said last year, “ The fulfilment for me comes from the realisation that MMS was never a company to be used and not owned by me and my family, but to be passed into posterity for the benefit of clients, workers, communities and the country.

PB Scott has transformed the Musson Group into a diversified conglomerate operating in 30 countries. The Musson Group has an annual turnover of US$1.5 billion and employs over 7000 people. 

Over the last five years, the Musson Group has invested over US$200 million in Jamaica. Companies like Seprod, Eppley, PBS and T. Geddes Grant come under the Musson Group umbrella.

P.B. Scott is also chairman of the Development Bank of Jamaica.

On investment in Jamaica, P.B. Scott observed, “ Investment is a function of healthy financial systems where individuals are confident in their ability to access capital and taking a risk in deploying it. The reality is that we have very conservative regulations, and as a result we are capturing capital and ensuring that it does nothing but stay in the bank and does not get invested in longer-term assets, to to employ people and lead to development and growth. We need to take the savings and investments of the country and align it to the policy directives, which is to grow.”