Access to finance, fear of failure ‘crippling the entrepreneurial spirit’.

There is a serious need for the emergence of more Bahamian entrepreneurs a young businessman has stated, arguing that access to financing coupled with the fear of failure were ‘killing the entrepreneurial spirit’ in the country.

Lincoln Deal II, the JetLink Adventures founder and chief executive while speaking as a panelist at the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) conference recently recalled that he had been turned down by 17 potential financiers- two of which were commercial banks- while seeking to acquire the capital to launch his business, before finally securing funding from the Bahamas Entrepreneurial Venture Fund. Deal noted that he also had also been denied by government seven times in his attempt to secure a license for his business which has been in operation for two nearly two years. JetLink Adventures in The Bahamas’ first water-propelled jetpack operator.

“There is a lack of activities in The Bahamas for our visitors. Tourists are looking for new experiences and new things to do,” said Deal. “Young people, Bahamians aren’t short of ideas however access to funding coupled with the fear of failure has kind of crippled the entrepreneurial spirit. What we need are more Bahamian disruptors, persons who see The Bahamas in a particular way, solve an existing problem, create more entrepreneurs and create less dependence on government,” Deal added.