LEA assists with business plans
Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) has highlighted that due to high difficulties in accessing funds and lack of planning, it is open to assist entrepreneurs to prepare business plans to access funding and keep their businesses going.
Business planning does not only ascertain the viability of the business, but also provides a roadmap for the business, as well as a justification to seek loans from the financing institutions. To succeed in business, having a well written business plan will improve an entrepreneur’s chances of loan approval.
In a statement by LEA this week, Wanetsha Mosinyi explains that, it is for these reasons that the Authority has been in the forefront of assisting entrepreneurs in doing business plans to access funding. “During the 2016-17 financial year (April 2016-March 2017), LEA assisted 1312 Micro Enterprises from the Youth Development Fund and the Department of Gender Affairs Fund to develop business plans so that they could benefit from these two Government initiatives. These Micro Enterprises were assisted at the 13 LEA branches across the country,” indicates Mosinyi. These entrepreneurs were assisted with services such as; business counselling and pre-screening; screening, needs and gap analysis.
In addition, he said the LEA team at various branches coached the entrepreneurs to complete their business plans before submission to the Gender and Youth Departments for funding. Furthermore, the entrepreneurs were recommended to attend basic training on business planning, record keeping, Entrepreneurship Development Training (EDT) as well as sales and marketing. All the four courses are offered by LEA.
The Gender Department and YDF beneficiaries, he said, were also offered the business development kit, which is an information pack specifically developed to assist the businesses with all the relevant information needed to start and operate an enterprise. The kit contains information and forms of various institutions that are necessary and must be completed by the business promoter. Included in the kit are guidelines, forms and information from: the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA); Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS); financiers/banks and; the Public Procurement and Assert Disposal Board (PPADB).
LEA believes that pre-counselling, screening and needs analysis services are very important to the SMMEs before funding, as these help improve the chances of prudent loan utilization, thereby ensuring business growth. The Authority continues to assist these beneficiaries with various interventions relevant to start and grow their businesses, and register them as LEA clients.