Belinda Botha talks through tactics to weather the global pandemic and why she chose to work towards her BLP Certificate
Belinda Botha, Owner and Director of Dive Munda – Covid-19 Human Capital Services, is a well-known female entrepreneur in the BLP Network. With a commitment to sustainable dive eco-tourism and furthering the position of the Solomon Islands on the world-diving map. Belinda was named Entrepreneur of the Year in December 2019 and also received a ‘Business Excellence Award’ from the Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SICCI).
Dive Munda owner/operator Belinda Botha employs local staff from the area to help run her operation
Belinda tells us in this blog how she has adapted her business during the global pandemic, what SMEs can work on in times of crisis and why she chose to work towards her BLP Certificate, which was awarded last month.
On adapting to an ever-changing tourism environment in 2020, Belinda tells us why she decided to launch a virtual consulting service.
As soon as the COVID-19 crisis began, I knew that Dive Munda would need to close operations for the foreseeable future and adapt in order to survive and bounce back better.
Dive Munda Consulting was born out of necessity and as a response to be able to help SMEs in the pacific – people like myself, entrepreneurs that were really forced to come to a standstill when this crisis started,” says Belinda.
Using her background skills and degree as an Industrial Psychologist, and experience as a small-to-medium sized tourism operator, Belinda jumped at the opportunity to help others in similar positions to cope with the crisis, which she highlights is not just financial or political but a human one as well.
I saw this beautiful opportunity to offer business advice, continuity planning and HR with a COVID-19 twist and worked with BLP to launch my services straight after borders around the world started to close.
It’s businesses like myself that I am focusing on. The ones that need tourists to survive and have been severely impacted by the pandemic,” she adds.
With the Solomon Islands’ economy already heading into a recession and the GDP growth for 2020 forecast to further decline to minus 4.9 per cent, Belinda tells us about some of the things that SMEs in the Solomons can focus on in order to survive or adapt to a new normal.
In the midst of a crisis you have no way to pay your people or any way of knowing how long it might go on for so it’s extremely important to find someone that will listen to you, provide some global perspective and reason through problems you might be facing.
I truly believe that by giving SMEs enough support and comfort to adapt they will be able to get their creative juices flowing, stimulate new business ideas and bounce back,” says Belinda.
Specifically, Belinda says now is the time to work on business continuity plans, applying for financial help where needed and upskilling in areas that will benefit the business down the line.
Divemasters: Jenorita Lamupio, Junior Ziro and Joan Sasa,George Kasa and Janita Kuanga.
With her own dive instructing and boat tour businesses on hold or operating at reduced capacity for the next 6-months, Belinda says the pandemic has tested every single aspect of her skills as a leader, small business owner and advisor.
For her, this crisis is not about changing the cards that she has been dealt with but is about how she can respond and stay positive for her staff in order to find a way forward.
Speaking to her own advice on upskilling, Belinda tells us how she used some of the downtime outside of consulting to apply and work towards her BLP certificate in advisory skills, which was awarded to Belinda last month.
Working on my BLP Certificate was a wonderful journey as it gave me the opportunity to dig into what I have done in the past and remember all the client stories I have worked on.
It was a rigorous process that ticked a bunch of boxes for me personally – It provided credibility to the advisory process with BLP, and demonstrated that in order to be awarded the Certificate you would need to be tested on both technical advisory skills and consulting advisory skills.
It gave me another level of confidence as a small-to-medium business owner as I could see it was a credible process and would provide other SMEs looking for advisors a feeling of trust,” says Belinda.
Jack and George, new SSI Instructors and Jenorita Lamupio new SSI Assistant Instructor.
Belinda is one of seven BLP Advisors in the network to receive the gold standard Certificate in Business Advisory Skills.
The Certificate is designed to recognise a range of advisory skills required to be an expert BLP Business Advisor. Skills include the understanding of the Small and Medium-sized (SME) sector, robust advisory processes and consulting practices.
Rounding off our chat with Belinda we asked her if there was one specific piece of advice she could give to SMEs in the Pacific at the moment.
Belinda says she always goes back to something she specifically created as a response to the COVID-19 crisis, which she calls the 10 ps’.
Positivity, perspective, planning, being pragmatic, being proactive in finding solutions, priorities, focusing on people, persisting, finding possibilities and looking at important partnerships.
So if I had to summarise that is the key piece of advice I would provide to all of us.
Not just from a business perspective but also from a personal one in order to help us respond and come through on the other side,” says Belinda.
If you are a Solomon Islands-based business with between 5-50 employees, and you have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis, you could be eligible for the BLP 100% Subsidy Support. Please click HERE to read more about the terms and conditions for this subsidy, and contact BLP at [email protected], we are based at the, Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
If you are a BLP Business Advisor and would like to apply for The Business Link Pacific Certificate in Business Advisory Skills you can apply online. The process is supported by a panel of expert assessors at Business Link Pacific.