Cook Islands Business Trade Investment Board (BTIB) have finished training local entrepreneurs in Aitutaki and will continue in Atiu next month.

Teroro Totini from BTIB said the training was about teaching participants how to form business, marketing and financial plans. The training also covered how to price products and complete manual bookkeeping.

Totini said BTIB would provide cash books and invoice books to the workshop participants who would then complete activities.

BTIB run training programmes every month in Rarotonga and the organisation also tries to get to the Pa Enua monthly, Totini said.

The agency will be in Atiu from October 11 – 13 after finishing training in Aitutaki earlier this month.

After Atiu, Totini said she hoped the workshop would continue to Mangaia and the other Southern group islands.

She said workshop participants were aware of the documents and processes necessary to run a business but they did not know how to do them.  

“They know if they apply for a business loan they need a business plan but they don’t know how to do the business plan,” Totini explained.

“That’s how we come in and assist them, and provide templates on how they can create their own business plan for them to submit to the banks.”

Totini said the workshops have been ongoing for some time, adding they were now moving towards digital resources.

“We have been trying to move with the time, hence the introduction of the digital bookkeeping via tablet.”

She said the courses were about putting business owners on the right track.

Totini said people had become more confident with the necessary process since the courses started.

All the training courses conducted by BTIB are free.