The State of Small Business in Barbados

National Survey of the Small Business Sector (Barbados)

CONCLUSION

2.The combined qualitative and quantitative findings of this study point to a clear structural imbalance within the Barbadian MSME landscape, characterised by a high concentration of employment in the services sector alongside relatively limited participation in agriculture and industry. While services play a critical role in supporting domestic employment and income generation, their relatively low export intensity constrains foreign exchange earnings and limits the sector’s contribution to external balance. 1.The findings from this 2025 survey show that MSMEs remain central to Barbados’ economy but operate under persistent constraints that have changed little since 2016. Indeed, the current configuration of the sector does not yet position the country for sustained expansion, export competitiveness, or economic resilience. The dominance of low-revenue firms, limited export participation, weak scaling into higher-value activities, and persistent structural constraints suggest that without targeted and coordinated policy intervention, the MSME sector will continue to function as a survival-based ecosystem rather than a growth-oriented engine of development. 3.While female participation has increased and aggregate revenue has grown, scaling, productivity, export depth, and resilience remain limited. The strong concentration of female owned enterprises at the micro level raises important structural questions regarding the scalability of women-led businesses. The data indicate that women are participating actively in entrepreneurship, particularly at entry level, however there is limited evidence of progression into small and medium-sized enterprises. Several factors may contribute to this pattern. Female-owned businesses are more likely to operate in service-based and lower capital sectors, which typically have lower barriers to entry but also more limited growth potential. In addition, constraints related to access to finance, collateral requirements, and risk perception within lending institutions may disproportionately affect women-owned enterprises, restricting their ability to scale. Social factors, including caregiving responsibilities and time constraints, may also limit expansion capacity. 4.In contrast, agriculture and manufacturing, despite their strategic importance for export development, food security, and foreign exchange generation, remain underrepresented in both employment and enterprise scale. This imbalance has important implications for Barbados’ trade deficit and long-term economic resilience, particularly in the context of global economic uncertainty and supply chain disruptions. Strengthening agriculture-driven MSMEs, particularly those with the potential to scale into higher-revenue categories, presents a critical opportunity to reduce import dependence and retain a greater share of economic value within the domestic economy. This will require targeted support for production expansion, agro-processing, supply chain development, and market access, alongside financing mechanisms that enable firms to transition from micro-scale to commercially viable operations.

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Small Business Association of Barbados