SME owners eat together at training

A spread of sectors was represented at a two-day training session offered by a local bank to the owners of small and medium enterprises to enhance their management skills.
Earlier this year, Standard Bank Namibia announced it will start an SME Training, Coaching and Mentoring programme, targetting the owners of small and micro businesses. The bank said the training is offered to all interested SME owners and not only to the bank’s clients.
Last week’s training was the inaugural session of the one-year programme in which 17 SME owners have enrolled. The participating SME owners ranged from business people involved in renewable energy, law firms, farming production, information technology and accounting firms.
“Through using the board-based business simulations, the focus is mainly on giving them the tools to grow their SME businesses by applying due diligence, checking their expenses, building their balance sheet, watching the trends and at the same time generate wealth for themselves,” said the training facilitator Anton du Preez.
“It was very enlightening because it made me realise that I was actually running my business with my eyes closed. In fact this training saved me from closing down and now I feel I need to get back to the basics and relook my whole business and I am even inspired to take on a new business idea of starting a printing shop in the near future,” said Alvine Samuel who runs the law firm Samuel Legal Practitioners since September last year and a law practice Tipara Estates since August 2014.
Every year a new group of 25 SME owners will be selected for training.