For 24 years, the Swiss foundation BPN, with international experience, has been helping small and medium-sized businesses develop through education and consulting/coaching. The foundation offers participants a 3-year program tailored to them, during which they have the opportunity to benefit from individual business consulting, coaching from invited Swiss and local experts, and attend practice-oriented educational seminars and workshops conducted by them. At the same time, the foundation is a prerequisite for creating more jobs - 14,606 people have found jobs throughout the foundation's history. BPN operates in Europe, Asia and Africa. Since 1999, more than 1,500 participants have been involved in the program, and up to 2,000 seminars/workshops have been held, which were attended by up to 25,000 participants.
Georgia has appeared on the BPN world map since 2016, creating a development perspective for any development-oriented small and medium-sized business. Currently, 85 small and medium-sized businesses from various sectors are involved in the program, and applicants are regularly added. We learned about the principle of the fund's work and how it helps beneficiaries organize their business from BPN Georgia's Digital Marketing Manager, Ana Aivazishvili .
M: What challenges have local small and medium-sized businesses faced during the pandemic?
Of course, the beginning of the pandemic was a big challenge for all companies, not only in Georgia, but worldwide. The tourism and restaurant sectors were particularly affected, and manufacturing and service providers were no exception.
BPN Georgia managed to adapt to the current situation and regulations in the shortest possible time. First, the fund was immediately switched to remote mode to ensure uninterrupted communication with beneficiaries.
From the very beginning, BPN Georgia set a goal to help Georgian entrepreneurs by sharing Western experience and expertise through the implementation of a special educational program.
M: How have you helped entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses during the pandemic?
Immediately after the pandemic, BPN Georgia, together with the program participants, identified their challenges and crisis situation through a special questionnaire. After that, the businessmen involved in the program received recommendations from BPN Georgia's qualified experts on planning and taking appropriate strategic steps.
As a result of the transition to online platforms, the accessibility of BPN Georgia's services has increased, which has enabled dozens of start-ups and representatives of already established businesses throughout Georgia and beyond to benefit from a special business module that involved intensive online work with entrepreneurs.
As we have already mentioned, BPN Georgia, along with the existing seminars, has developed a new training program, which has helped both program participants and other interested businesses to adapt their activities to the new reality, adapt services and products based on the changed form of demand and supply in the market, set new plans and implement them. Of particular note is the role of sharing Swiss experience from our foreign and Georgian experts in adapting to the new reality.
We believe that open communication and sharing of experiences significantly helps companies deal with critical situations, so BPN Georgia organized a number of panel meetings where program participants shared their experiences and methods of dealing with the crisis.
M: How would you assess how effectively small and medium-sized entrepreneurs have coped with the pandemic situation?
We constantly say and believe: a problem always means an opportunity. It is precisely with this approach and crisis management training that almost all participants in our program were able to not stop despite all the difficulties, adapt to the new reality, create new services and products, switch to remote mode, optimize costs, bring new projects to fruition, and receive funding from various donors. What's more, the majority of program participants were able to earn more in 2022 than in previous years.
As the participants of the BPN Georgia program say, business education and sharing of Western experience played a crucial role for them. Along with everything, they received great motivation from us, which helped them cope with the existing difficulties.
M: How do you see the prospects for the development of entrepreneurs in Georgia?
We believe that Georgia has a good climate for starting a business and sustainable development. There are still many untapped sectors. There are many donor organizations in the country that support the financing of one or another business sector. Entrepreneurs have the opportunity to create significant wealth, which should first largely replace imports and then gradually increase exports. In our experience, this requires openness, education, and the sharing and adoption of best practices, along with financial resources.
The crisis has awakened many businesses, it was a bitter lesson for many, many learned that it is necessary to analyze risks, to think about what will happen tomorrow. All this will not pass without a trace and will affect the methods of doing business in the future.
M: Tell us what the entrepreneurial training process is like, what does it include, and what determines its effectiveness?
A representative of a development-oriented small or medium-sized business has the opportunity, after passing the selection stage, to join BPN Georgia's long-term business development program, which includes: developing a business development plan, compiling financial tables and individual consultations/coaching based on it, and participating in seminars and workshops focused on improving business knowledge. Seminars and workshops are built on specific, live and practical examples taken from the experience of Georgian and international companies in order to make the theoretical material provided more understandable and effective for the listener and make it easier to put it into practice.
The effectiveness of the program is determined by the long-term, close cooperation between BPN Georgia and the program participant, during which issues relevant to the beneficiary are discussed individually in the format of consultations/coaching. Within the framework of cooperation with BPN Georgia, the participant receives practice-oriented knowledge, the opportunity to establish and deepen contacts necessary for business. In addition, through advertising activities organized and sponsored by BPN Georgia (articles, video clips, events), the representative of small and medium-sized businesses involved in the program has the opportunity to increase the awareness of their company.
M: What are your future plans?
The recent situation has further highlighted the importance of BPN Georgia's activities. Businesses are facing major challenges that can only be overcome through good business planning and proper prioritization. Therefore, BPN Georgia is ready to cooperate with even more businesses.
We are constantly working on developing new business programs, making international experts available to Georgian businesses, and providing quality consulting to entrepreneurs. Of course, we will continue to work intensively in this direction in the future.
