#SMEs: Lack of Finance is not the Challenge!

One of the challenges businesses claim to face is access to finance. Sometimes this may not be the challenge because options and opportunities to access financing keep on coming. Many a times the challenge is the business is not adequately prepared to take advantage of the opportunities available to them.

For instance, on the 18th May 2015 I posted about the funding opportunity that was available to the tune of US100,000 by Matching Grant Facility (MGF) under the Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project (CEDP) with The Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU). Some entrepreneurs were not able to put in their proposal on time because they couldn’t put together all the documents required to meet the timeline given of15th June 2015. They didn’t have even some of the basics handy.

16 Ways to Finance Your Start-up

As I walked out of the meeting with some young entrepreneurs, one came to me and said, “all I need is Ugx500,000 and I am sorted!”. I knew she was trained in area that the rest of the incubatees weren't and would value her advise. She would have offered her advisory services for a small fee and start saving up for the money she needed.

The challenge is that most businesses want expert advise for free. Of course there is a place for probono services but not all the time. We have to appreciate that the same way we take time to nurture our businesses is the same way the experts take time to acquire knowledge and continuous professional development (CPD). Time is money and the CPDs have to be paid for as well.

I went away from the meeting thinking of how many start-ups have not yet taken off because of lack of capital as it were. I have therefore read about and made an attempt to put down some sources of funding that one may consider: