A Jamaica-based business development and management consulting firm hosted a networking event in Jamaica last week aimed at supporting local construction businesses.
R.F. Wilkins Consultants hosted a strategy and networking event on Wednesday night to equip construction-related business owners with the knowledge to scale their businesses to the scale of several large construction projects taking place in Queens.
The aim of the event was to equip entrepreneurs, especially minority and/or women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs), with insights from experts, strategies, and workshops that could help companies grow to take on bigger construction contracts.
“We’re hoping that this is the sweet spot where they get the information they need so that when they are ready for whatever big contracts they’re looking for, that they get it,” said Jamila Glean, a project director at RF Wilkins.
RF Wilkins is a Jamaica-based consultant group that helps entrepreneurs manage their projects. Services include help with fundraising, event management, and compliance projects for government regulations.
The consultant group is working on the $19 billion JFK redevelopment project to ensure that developers are doing what they can to hire minority women-owned businesses, properly reporting on how they’re spending money, and treating those firms they hire fairly. The JFK project aims to utilize minority women-owned businesses for about 30% of the contractors.
“We hear a lot from developers and prime contractors, ‘Oh, there’s not enough MWBE firms that do X, Y, and Z’ or ‘They can do the work, but only a very tiny portion of the work,’” Glean said.
She added that though the JFK project has a need for MWBE contractors, the event wasn’t geared toward getting these construction companies to apply for contracts at any one project. There are several other large-scale projects in Queens, including at Resorts World Casino and the incoming soccer stadium in Central Queens.
Wednesday night attracted a range of entrepreneurs, including HVAC companies, piping companies, general construction firms, electricians, and engineering firms, to name a few. Senator Leroy Comrie who represents the district was also in attendance.
The event was targeted to companies that have successfully completed a project valued at a hundred thousand dollars or more and are looking to gain larger contracts. Typically, these companies are looking to increase their staff and equipment to run those projects successfully.
“What we found is that a lot of firms — they are built by a person who is talented in a specific area and they know how to do that work, but they may not know how to do all of the backend work, and they definitely don’t have all the capital,” Glean said. “So that’s what we’re hoping this event will fill in some of those gaps.”
The night brought together a smaller group of around 40 entrepreneurs in order to give its participants a chance to talk to everybody in the room. It started with a networking strategies panel, then had a one-on-one interview with Patricia Robinson from the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation and RF Wilkin’s CEO Francilia Wilkins Rahim. Later in the evening, Aron Kurlander, also from Greater Jamaica Development Corp, talked about access to capital, and then the event proceeded into break-out sessions where the entrepreneurs bid on contracts and wrote capability statements.
