Every major problem is born small
Every year, the IMK - Institute for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises - comes to the rescue of more than 45 small businesses that have appealed to the government's assistance scheme, the so-called Bbz. The IMK assesses the viability of these companies, because we as a society do not want us to bring “good money to a bad thing”. In only XNUMX% of those studies, we give the green light for temporary credit or a temporary benefit. Not more than half of them and that is almost always the end of the story for those companies.
It is a shame, because a large part of those dropouts would indeed have been viable if the entrepreneur had previously knocked on the door for help. Waited too long, sometimes because of shame, sometimes because of hubris, but also very often because of ignorance. Gosh, I didn't know there was such a safety net for entrepreneurs, we hear daily from entrepreneurs, accountants and bank employees.
Zuidweg and IMK went to the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2013 with a joint master plan entitled “Integrated approach against business failure. “Very sympatheticThey said there, but they had no further time and resources for entrepreneurs in severe weather. “Top sectors, that's our priority”.
Not discouraged we went to work anyway. Jacqueline Zuidweg took the initiative for MKB Doorstart and we took the initiative for 155-Help-een-Bedrijf, the national emergency counter for entrepreneurs with a blazing fire. Two initiatives for the same charity.
We have asked municipalities to participate in the 155 desk and 160 municipalities are already affiliated. Since four months, we have been looking for entrepreneurs who are in need of money with an online media campaign and in those months more than 42.000 entrepreneurs clicked on our banners. More than two thousand of them performed our Bbz scan and, to their own surprise and relief, 62% were found to meet the criteria for the scheme. With this we seem to have found an effective and efficient way to reach entrepreneurs on time in difficult weather. Would you like to try the Bbz scan yourself? Then go to 155.nl.
Han Dieperink, Managing Director of the Institute for Small and Medium Enterprises (IMK)