TechnoServe develops entrepreneurs and business owners such that the business becomes competitive and sustainable through formal skills training, business plan development, personal mentoring, facilitation of access to finance, business development support, networking for continued growth and an accelerator platform which builds capacity.
TechnoServe supports SMMEs in the form of ‘Business Plan Competitions’, which are intended to help individuals who are interested in setting up a new business to gain the necessary skills and to help existing small and medium-scale entrepreneurs who wish to significantly expand their businesses and improve their skills and entrepreneurial abilities.
A recent Harvard study of the TechnoServe “Business Plan Competitions” reveals a baseline parameter of 9 to 11 percentage points higher probability of opening a business and a 23 to 26 percentage points higher probability of expanding a business (for individuals with an existing business before the program) among recipients of assistance. Financial constraints were also shown to be more onerous for women who wish to start or expand a business than for men.
A research paper published by Mandla Nkomo on the Viability of Business Plan Competitions highlights that for entrepreneurship to thrive, there has to be an ecosystem in the country that encourages, capacitates and continuously supports the creation of entrepreneurial ventures.
In 2009, TechnoServe conducted a study to assess the impact of its Central American business plan competitions (BPCs). The results were dramatic: After two years, BPC participants generated twice the sales growth and were more than twice as likely to be successful than businesses that did not participate in the competitions.
The emphasis BPCs place on creating business plans has proven to be of great value, forcing entrepreneurs to explore and resolve key issues. Through classroom training, entrepreneurs learned how to conduct serious market and competitive analysis, to plan strategically and break into new markets.
BBB Awards
Alumni Network Programme:
Believe Begin Become is a comprehensive entrepreneurship development programme, which promotes and supports SME development by providing technical and management skills to growing and aspiring business owners.
The Alumni Network Programme creates a platform for the 240 entrepreneurs who have completed the BBB programme to share and jointly resolve common challenges, while supporting the entrepreneurs through training and mentoring, industry support, networking events, business development vouchers and call centre support facilities.
Since 2007, TechnoServe South Africa has delivered three of these programmes, yielding impressive results with more than 80% of the businesses still in active operation and many of the larger businesses heading for a second cycle of growth through the TechnoServe Accelerator Programme.
BBB Aftercare
BBB Alumni
TechnoServe Accelerator Programme:
The objective of the Accelerator model is to provide businesses that have achieved scale or are at the ‘tipping point’, with acceleration to get to the next level of their growth trajectory. The key criteria for Accelerator support are significant market opportunities and a proven growth trajectory.
The model focuses on providing access to capital and markets in order to help entrepreneurs achieve sustainable growth. On the capital side, TechnoServe helps entrepreneurs calculate capital needs and negotiate with potential sources of funding. On the market side, business advisors help fledgling businesses connect to markets for their products.
“The only way to turn our exclusive economy into an inclusive economy, in which citizens broadly participate, is to precipitate an entrepreneurial revolution.”
