HTS News 4orce St. Lucia's #1 News Team
Business development officials here have been trained to teach owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) to better present themselves to financial institutions in order to obtain funding for their business.
A major challenge for many SME’s is the failure to meet the requirements of banks and lenders to access capital.
The Department of Commerce in collaboration with the Savings Banks Foundation for International Co-operation (SBFIC) hosted a financial skills for business planning “train the trainers” workshop 
this week.
The trained individuals will now pass on this information to SME owners at a six-day workshop beginning July 5, 2017.
Business Development Officer Nathaniel Allain said individuals were instructed on matters of finance, business plans and other key areas.
“Small business persons have a lot of difficulty in accessing finance, and it’s because they do not meet the standards and requirements of the bank. We’re hoping that through today’s session we’d be able to train persons to go out to train our SME’s to do what they need to know about financing, book keeping, doing business plans and getting the information that the banks need in order to provide financing to our clients,” he said.
The SBFIC provided the training.
SBFIC project manager and MSME finance expert, Joerg Teumer, said the initiative is geared at improving planning skills and financial standing of businesses.
“We go into the specifics of how to write a business plan – what to say when you are writing a business plan, how to present yourself better. [We showed] how to improve your internal management skills and finally, how to put all this on paper and make a good financial report and projections for your future development, which then attracts investors and lenders to provide you with the necessary finance,” he explained.
He said that the workshop also equipped participants with knowledge on how to better understand financial statements and improve their financial reporting. He noted that a key to the success of many countries and economies is the ability for small entrepreneurs to get access to finance.
The upcoming seminar is planned for July 3-5, and July 7th, 10th and 12th.
