Business blog

If you currently have a business or you are considering starting a business, establishing business credit is a good idea. According to the National Association of Credit Management (NACM) small business owners should take steps to establish credit in the name of their business as a way to preserve cash flow for necessary business operations, purchases, and rental payments. Here are a few basics to begin building business credit.

Separate Your Business Credit from Personal Credit

Business credit can and should be established separate from personal credit. When business owners use their personal credit to obtain business credit, they run the risk of lowering their personal credit scores. The business owner also risks being personally responsible for business liabilities. If you file bankruptcy and your personal and business credit are one in the same, you stand to lose everything. Business credit protects your personal assets.

No Personal Guarantees

The most important element to establishing business credit is finding lending institutions, credit card issuers and vendors that will establish business credit without you giving a personal guarantee. A personal guarantee involves using your personal credit information to guarantee repayment of the debt incurred by the business. In other words, you are obligating yourself to be 100% responsible for the business debt. It may be your intention to fully repay any debt incurred by the business; however, obligating your personal and business assets to repaying business debts can lead to financial ruin if any business setbacks occur.

Business Structure

Doing business as a sole proprietor will not allow you to distinguish your business credit from your personal credit. As a sole proprietor you may be “doing business as”; however, you are not a separate business entity. In order to establish business credit without a personal guarantee you must structure your business as a separate legal entity such as a corporation or limited liability company. Even if you have been doing business as a sole proprietor for years, you can restructure your business into a separate legal entity. Besides, it is a better choice to set your business up as an entity separate and apart from you. Your business could get sued and if all of your assets are tied together, financial ruin may be lurking in the background. Having a separate entity protects your personal assets.

Tax Identification Numbers

Your business entity must have an Employer Identification Number (EIN) also known as a Federal Tax Identification Number (Tax ID). The EIN is your permanent number and can be used immediately for most of your business needs, including opening a bank account, applying for business licenses and establishing a business credit file. Never use your social security number. It may also be necessary to establish a State tax identification number. For the federal tax identification number you can apply online at www.irs.gov. The application process is fairly simple and you can receive the EIN immediately.

Business Checking Account

Your business entity should have at least one bank account, in the name of the business, that can be used as a bank reference. The older the bank account, the better. Having a business checking account helps in establishing your business identity and reputation. Banking relationships are still important in the business world. Building a strong relationship with your bank can be of assistance when you begin to seek business financing.

Get a Business License

You must always register your business and obtain a business license in the State, County or City where you conduct business. For some reason, this is not always done by businesses. It should be at the top of your “to do” list. Always register your business in the jurisdiction where you conduct business.

For a step-by-step process for building business credit please visit: www.rebuildcreditscores.com/Business_Credit.html

 

Economies all over the world are experiencing a decline, businesses are laying off many people in order to cut costs and stay profitable. Those who retain their jobs are faced with rocketing food and gas prices.

 

When you are an owner of a small business, the challenges are even greater, under the circumstances, you are more likely to experience a decline in traffic to your store, raising costs of supplies, employees demanding (understandably) higher wages, higher fees in marketing your business using mainstream media, higher costs in renting business space and insurance costs. If you are an accountant you might have probably figured that under this circumstances, unless you are selling magic items, you would see higher expenses than income. Business is not about how much money you make, but it is more about how much of the money you make actually stays in the business. A business that makes a million a year and spends a million is the same as the business that does not do business at all, except in the earlier case, the owner is actually at a loss because they are putting in more effort than they are making.

So how do you survive that? That was exactly the same question I asked myself a few months ago. Here I have compiled some notes that some in the same situation as I was might find helpful.

1   Constant Evaluation  and process streamlining.

 

Constant evaluation is the blood and soul of every business. As the saying goes “What got you to where you are may not be able to get you where you want to be”. To be honest, I have never met any business person, whether it is in the formal or informal sector who wanted their business to stay the same for a long period of time, no matter how well they were doing. Being on top of your class does not stop your competitors from doing what it takes to beat you. We see a lot of big businesses laying people off, going through mergers and acquisition. This is process streamlining on a large scale. They evaluate their positions, get rid of inefficient processes, redundant positions and so on. Don’t feel guilty if you have to do it for your small business… If you find yourself with more employees than you need or using a process that is costing you more than it brings in, cut it off and replace it with something that works better.

I will tell you a secret. A few years ago, I read an article about how one could make a lot of money on FOREX, if you do not know what it is, basically the business is about speculating on whether a certain currency’s value would get stronger or weaker and then you would either buy or sell a specific currency in exchange for another currency.

I thought that was a pretty easy thing to do and got a lot of books telling me that it is a lucrative business. I am not disputing that, but there are also a lot of people that loose money this way. I also got a few articles somewhere that warned me about what happens on FOREX, but  at the same time I was getting drawn to it, not by the money but by the fact that I could learn a lot about financial discipline.

After two months, I had almost lost all that I had in my account, but I had also learned a lot of things. One of the important lessons is to cut your losses short and let your profits run. Get me right, this is not the same as giving up too soon. This is giving up soon after knowing that the business is heading no where. This may sound like a greedy game, but it works. To me money not spend is money saved, it is as simple as that.

Why am I telling you this? I am telling you this because A few years later I would start a small business that did not really fit my lifestyle but it had the potential to take off. I would spend most of my starting capital on advertising and rent and then on wages for my staff. Being what it was, the business was not generating enough revenue to cover its expenditure, because the marketing media and approaches we used were not working and were difficult to evaluate whether they were effective or not and given the my lifestyle, I was learning that there is no way I would be able to take the business to the next level using the resources I had. I had a choice to either wait and let it wipe me out of my hard-earned cash or cut my loses short and explore other alternatives.

By talking to other small business owners, I would find out that many were facing the same problem that I was. I then put some time aside and develop a web-based platform to sell my stuff. This was the birth of SME Promotions Portal,  the idea was not only simple, but it also helped me cut my business expenses by more than 50%, I got rid of the rented space and let go of my staff who were bringing in much less than I was paying them. I get most consulting assignments through the site and have automated a lot of the processes behind my business dealings to save me time so that I can concentrate on what I do best.

This site is not only for me, other people have started using the site to sell their products for a small fee. Giving them an opportunity to only pay after their products are sold. How does that help? If you are in a situation that I was in, having to pay upfront for everything sucks up all your working capital and spoils your prospects and leaving your business with no cash to work with. This leaves the business with a little bit of money to spend on basic needs.

Sorry if this sounded like bragging, it was not intended to and I urge you to keep reading, you might just be able to find something that works for you here.

2   Break away from conventional marketing practices.

 

If you started a business the way I did then you would know about what I am about to say. Many people out there think having a business is about having merchandise in store and putting ads everywhere to let people know where to find you; or even worse hoping that people will easily come by your store looking for what you got.

Others spend most of their starting capital on radio and TV commercials like I did, when they know they have no way of measuring where the traffic is coming from, so that they can cut out stuff that is not working. The sad thing is that many advertisers out there do not care whether you get your returns out of your advertising dollar and honestly, they shouldn’t, because they are in business to make money. Otherwise how would you feel if somebody told you that every time you sold a frying pan to a family, you would have to follow them around to make sure they are using it. It is not your business, your business is selling frying pans and you should stick to that.

To make sure your business can survive, you have start talking to people you know and trust or people that trust you, about what you are offering. Do not try to push it on to them, just tell them know about it. Chances are, that next time they hear somebody looking for what you have, they would refer them to you. The idea is that the few that you know are going to tell a few others that they know and the game continues… viral marketing… if you get where I am heading. The best tool for viral marketing is word-of-mouth, you either learn to use it or loose business.

Save your marketing dollar, by cutting out all the stuff that does not work, the world is bombarded with marketing messages every second and many people are beginning to ignore marketers who interrupt them with a sales proposition. Watch your competitors see what they are doing wrong and learn from it.

My nephew Sylvester had just learned a hard lesson from interruptive marketing, we were distributing flyers about our business and most of the time he would get a mean look and be told that people did not have time for what he was trying to sell them. After going through the pile of flyers, we would sit and talk about how people are responding, why they are responding that way? and what we needed to do to overcome that?. Just make sure you do this all the time, otherwise you are going to waste a lot of your resources and not understand what is going on when they do not show up at your store.

If your business is too small, try online merchandising. You look for a cheaper way  to sell your products on the internet. This will cut your expenses in terms of rent, expensive advertising and even the commuting time as this will enable to work from home. Besides, you will be able to market to a wider audience and do not have to be awake to take orders. This is not an easy cookie though, you will have to spend some time researching internet marketing and optimizing your website for best results.

3   Help your customers find the help you do not offer.

Customers are very interesting people, one thing is that many of them do not want to be sold something. They want to buy something and hopefully from you. They tend to ask people they trust of their opinion on other businesses or even products.

No matter how much you hate your competitor or how desperate you need their dollar, if you do not have what they are looking for, politely tell them that you can not provide it and they should check with your competitor or some of your non competing partners for that matter.  Never delay their purchase out of greed until you have the product to sell to them, leave that to them to decide.

Never bad-mouth a customer, even when you catch them buying the product you have from your competitor when you believe they should be buying from you. I have had someone from my household buy something I was selling from a competitor. I watched them do it and they later thought they should have bought from me. Whether out of guilt or something else, they told five of their friends that I had the product and all five bought from me. Had I reacted differently, the best case would have been that they would return the product to the store and buy from me and never bring anyone. The worst case would be not returning it, not referring anybody to me and decide not to ever talk to me. The funny thing about customers is that the more you help them, the more they get to trust you and they might even bring their friends to your business knowing that they will get help regardless of whether you have what they are looking for or not. Why is this important? People get to  you first before they get to somebody else, thus you have a chance to sell them something first before your competitor.

4   Ask non-competing business owners for help and return the favor.

 

If you are to survive in business, you have to acquire some friends hopefully people that are already in business but are not your direct competitors. You should do this for a few reasons, one is that since you are not competitors, you are more likely to need what they offer and so are they. These people might end up being your biggest customers or they may even refer their customers to your business.

Two, Since they are already in business, it is very likely that you think the same way. This gives you an opportunity to pick their brains on something that you need help with. Remember for the most part, we are defined by who we associate with. If you hang around thieves, you will be considered a thieve; and if you hang around very successful people, you will be considered successful, as long as you work hard enough to think and behave like them, for them not to run away from you.

Three, people around you are watching even when you think they are not. What you say to one about other people may come to haunt you. If you have hanged around somebody that gossips a lot, would it not bother you as to what they say behind your back? Or rather as to what would stop them from saying about you what they say to you about others? The same thing happens in business, when things are not going well, you reach out to others for help. This almost always works as long as you remain  accommodating about others reaching out to you. Keep what they tell you in confidence, confidential. This will earn you a good reputation, trust and in many cases new business or referrals.

<h4>5   Be Careful of hyped advertisers trying to take your last pennies.

 

How often do you see something like this? “Get ranked high on major search engines in 24 hours for a small fee” or rather an interesting one “Make up to $400 a day working at home using our proven system” and at the end of the page, they ask you to pay $300 to get you started.

These are all people wanting to get your money for their own benefit. First of all the web is full of people competing for the top ranking. Even if it was true that they would get you top ranking on Google or Yahoo, how long do you think you will stay there. Besides, these ads go to millions of people who maybe in the same business category that you are in, and just out of curiosity, how many millions would fit into Google or Yahoo’s top 10 ranking?

I am not completely dismissing the fact that some of them may be good, but if you are going to give somebody your money to use an automated system to put you on these search engines, then you got to think twice, because some search engines may be smart enough to know these tricks. Besides, if Google and/or Yahoo gets their money from online advertising, would you not think that they would watch out for sneaky marketing approaches like this, using their space to make money from you?

Secondly, Have you ever looked for a job and your employer tells you to pay them first before they gave you the job? If they did then, I would question the legality of their business.

What I am saying here is that you do not have to jump at every marketing message you hear, which is very common when you are desperate to see your business idea take off; or even to simply put something on the table. So trade wise, learn a lot by reading a lot and let your business grow. If you are going to succeed with online marketing your keyword research has to be done by you, since you and only you knows what you would like to get out of it and how much you want to pay for it.

6   Combine forces and let your marketing dollar take you a little farther.

 

My seventh grade teacher once demonstrated to me how powerful you can be by combining forces with other people for greater results. This may have nothing to do with business, but just hear me out.

This guy had noticed that kids in his class were not getting along, so he decides he is going to make the class sing, but everyone singing a different song, then asked three students to stand outside the class, so that after the song, they would come back and report on what they got from the song. After the first song, the three students came back into the class an reported different things about the same song, all of which were not accurate.

Then he decided to get the class to sing one song, with everyone singing to the same song at the same time. While the students were singing, he asked the three students to go a little farther from the classroom. After the second song, he invited the three students back into the class and asked them to report on the song they had just listened to. All three reported accurately.

So, what is the deal here? There are many people out there who think, they can do it on their own, ignoring the fact that their potential customers are getting bombarded with marketing messages from all over the place. The sad thing is that they end up spending a lot of money trying to get the word out, but because they are not in tune with others their messages do not get to the intended recipient. They finally grow tired and quit, even when there is a huge potential for success.

 

The best survival skill is to learn to play along with others while at the same time acknowledging that there are things that affects us differently from the way they affect others, even those closest to us. Anybody who had done stock trading would tell you “Never fight against the trend, if you plan on winning”. Take some time, listen to what people are saying about certain products, research a little to see if there is real demand for the product or service, determine whether people who are talking about it are real buyers and not just people who would want something of great value for almost nothing.

 

Why am I saying this? A lot of times, people would tell you about what they want, you get it to them, you realize they want it for much less or even worse, you realize that they are actually among the 80% who wants people to talk to them, but have no interest in buying anything. Watch out for those, if you come across one, politely excuse yourself and move on. Otherwise you will spend 80% of your time and resources selling to non-buyers.  Be careful though to distinguish non-buyers from potential buyers who are skeptical about your product.

7   Deliver what is promised on time.

A few months ago, a friend of mine came to me and said “I hear you do computer stuff, My computer is not starting and I would like you to take a look”. I asked him a few questioned and had determined that his problem is likely to be a hardware issue. I told him I would take a look, but at the same time I also told him that I was a software guy and I knew of another guy that did hardware stuff. As soon as I mentioned his name, the guy goes “Nope, I am not going back there, because he takes a long time to get things done”.  This had been the second person to say the same about this guy.

 

Although I was not a customer, It sort of made me hesitant to recommend him to anyone. If they did not get the service they deserved with this guy, it would put my credibility on the line. Now every time somebody asks me where to get their computers fixed, I would say I was not sure or would at least warn them before referring them to him. Who knows how much business he is loosing as a result of this? His former customers might be telling their friends to not go there.

 

Speedy and high quality service has proven to be the key to small business success. Follow up to make sure they are satisfied. This way you show that you are not only interested in getting rid of your product but also care about how they feel about the product. Just do not go overboard and get into how and whether they use the product, that is their business. Keep focused on delivering the best quality products and/or service and make sure they can come back or bring their friends for more. That is your part, the rest is up to them.

 

For the Support  of Small Business in Georgia

Content.

In the conditions of deep economic crisis and  during the period of extreme restriction in requisite  resources for economic investments of tendency of selecting priority in investing activities enquire upmost importance. According to these circumstances, small and average businesses must be admired in such system of priorities. It follows not only from conjectural, political  or ideological  purposefulness, but also from objective activities of social-economic conditions; Simultaneously it is also connected to the position perspectives of this field to solve vital questions of the country. (creating concrete atmosphere, increasing employment level and efficiency, treating and spreading technical decisions etc)  however, it is baseless to speak that small and average businesses in our country have any kids of advantages in distribution of investing resources, ` moreover, it often moves to the second place.

Financing has always been the urgent problem of small and overage businesses.  According to the social research of small industrial management, half of respondents had to use  their own savings in organizing these enterprises. Only more than a quarter managed to receive credits, but less than 20% – to attract depositors’ sources.

The  employers admit that, the first and main problem is finances and buildings and then follows cooperation with local authorities. However, investment always remains as the main problem in the activities of a particular firm.

Pressent Day Situation of a Small Business.

In western countries outnumbered commercial banks, insurance companies, branch funds, regional commercial departments of tuition structures stimulating small business, regional guarantees, outnumbered charitable funds and associations, actively support  them.

Due to not existed similar institutions, the development of small and average businesses is prevented. So it is quite natural, that development of small industrial net is still unable to form the commodity market. Nowadays supporting industrial activity has  no main basis in small and overage businesses. The situation of providing these enterprises  with material, energetic and financial resources has recently   been deteriorated; according to results of selective researches in 2000-2005, in order study small industrial business activities in industry, building and retail trade showed  that  nearly 40% from small industries have their raw and building material supplies reduced. The existing level of orders and resource  maintenance was estimated as “..below average”; however unlike large industries, homogeneous tendency  of economical situation in small and average businesses is distincted, e.g. during 200-2005, the amount  of employees and usage level of industrial capacity maintained sufficiently stable in small industries.

Although capital investments of small industries include sufficiently large amount  of  money (11% of investment realized at the expense of financial resources in Georgian economy. The small enterprise activity of industry in the field of investment is still exceptionally low.

Inquiries showed that among active reasons  about  restriction of investing activities, about 60% of  respondents  consider high level of taxation, 30% – high rate of inflation, above 30% general economic and political instability.

The leaders of small industries, critically characterize competitiveness of their products over 50 % of leaders  consider   it as “average” towards the internal market.

Leaders of examined small industries consider lack of their own resources. (75% from inquired people), high payment rate (over 60%), unaccepted conditions of investing and accounting as a main resistance for their  innovational activities.

Financing Sources of a Small Business.

Analysis of financing sources for small and overage business  shows that the most available for their activities are inner developing sources which are used by over 3/4 of industry, while only one from four, manages to abtain any kind of means from external sources. Enquiries show that their own small business incomes take first place among financing sources. It’s  proved by every two participants from three ones. On the second place are the founders of average business with their own sources;  (21,7%). And private credit takes the third place, used by 17,9% of these industries. Other sources are used by 10-15% of small businesses. Simultaneously over 20% of enquired leaders consider that their enterprises have no any developing chances. More complete idea about the nature of investing in small and average business field is given by the results; Researches on tendencies of small business investments. According to this data, leaders are those industries which direct their investments towards the equipment and transportation (57,5%); and the enterprises which use investments to fill their sources of circulation. take the second place (44,3%). A lot of enterprises use their sufficient sources in repairing building and commercials (38%). Over 20% of small enterprises spend their sources on their staff training.

Comparison of data according to the groups of small industries prove all the following differences connected   with specificity of a business field. e.g. small industries of trade fill their  sources of circulation, frequently (76%), but they stay backward in investment of human capital – only 8% of them provide staff training, whilst corresponding average index for all enterprises is 20,8%.

One of the main problems in small business development is their slight investment in the process of crediting due to existing high risks in this field. It  is caused by following factors: usually, small industries have no ability to represent absolute  guarantee independently over their responsibilities and there’s no complete system of guarantees and insurance of their investing activities.

Usually, personnel of small and average  businesses have no sufficient knowledge in economy, which is the main cause of those incomplete projects which are introduced by them. As for consulting service of business management and preparation of investing projects, as a rule it is excessively expensive for enterprises of small and average businesses.

The results show that in the process of providing crediting resources, leaders of small and average enterprises experience not only general inflexibility of crediting, but also discriminative policy of banks towards small and average businesses.

The main difficulty in the process of receiving credits is price restriction (very high percentage was mentioned by 47,6% of leaders of small enterprises); It is followed by the range of nonprice restriction – unpractical mortgage and  guarantees (21,9%), innaccessibility of investing credits (10,5%), restriction of crediting terms (14,3%) and subjective evaluation of discriminative conditions. Besides, the role of organizing factors is not sufficient.

The interests of commercial banks are not directed towards crediting of small enterprises due to their non-existing complete technologies of investment; Besides it claims to discuss numerous investing projects, though working procedures are highly  significant. Banks don’t take risks, due to their negative experience in disappearing of credited firms, no returned credits and hidden mortgages, including small and average businesses as well. Hence, due to controlling and providing insurance, they choose organizations having accounts in a particular creditor bank.

Banks avoid crediting of newly founded firms and insist on collateral security guaranteeing  a small enterprise. The level of percentage implies the level of risk that is significantly high for every small industry. Standard validities of given credits include  3-6 months period.

Thus, Georgian banks. like in western countries must inevitably develop assisted financial services for small and average businesses. First of all, it includes detailed treatment and examination of any kind of projects independently from credited funds and improvement for abilities of banks in estimation of loans. The same time, they must rely more on the knowledge of potential resources for enterprises and markets than in the amount of funds and guarantees.

Who Helps and How to Developa Small Susiness.

Noticeably developing non-governmental specific structures formed for supporting small and average industries are also of great importance. The first similar structure was founded in 1992. It was an agency, supporting small and average businesses. Its purpose is to increase industrial activity among the population with the  help of consulting, informational and expert services provided not only for small and average industries but for pioneer implcyers as well. It includes issues on economic, financial and taxation policy; recommendations about keeping a ledger; support for composing constituent documents; registration of enterprises and allowance of their activities; elaboration of a firm mode, teaching business; (hobbits based on special programmers, worked out  of the agency together with foreign experts). for  the successful development of their own activihes; (business planning; marketing; commercials; industrial experience etc); informational support for the operations of external trade. customs issues and other normative juridical problems. Agency constantly tries to expand its  own activities. It mainly includes issues on the support  of activity of small and average business industries. Special investing department is created in the structure of agency for this purpose, which is directed towards the preparation, training and conducting of recommendations for composing  business plans, investing projection and financial management; working and conducting of examination for investing projects; researches of their financing sources. The given department is an official agent of the federal fund for supporting small industries, that is directed to the selection of industrial projects for providing credits.

In the beginning, the functions of agency were distinctly oriented on the demands of developing small and average businesses in Tbilisi region, but now it has begun to play the role of informal-methodical – coordinative organizational structure throughout the country.

Realization of this role is significantly depended on the formation of corresponding regional agencies and their active participation in the country. Above mentioned activity of  the agency must necessarily be established by state departments.  Namely, it is advisable for the government to elaborate a special document about “regional agencies for supporting small industries”. In this document, it is necessary to be mentioned the labor financing scheme of the regional agencies’ net at the expense of assignation from the state budget. Formation of regional agencies supporting small and average businesses   is decisive to serve physical and juridical persons in creating small and average enterprises and to provide their effectiveness. Such schedule of services is defined by developing quality of agencies which may include practically all types of support for small and overage businesses including informational services,  legal advice and participation in investments. As a rule, the purpose of agencies is not receiving profits and that is why their quite high level of services  compared with ones of other organizations are relatively cheap, but in some cases it is  absolutely free of charge; if agencies function into contact with the government and authority organizations of all level. and are based on the assistance of these organizations.

Herewith, the first task is that the agency of small and overage business supporting, leads the work to form united  informational net of regional agencies, that will take active part in the field of modern informational technologies, highly quailfield organizations. It is a significant stage of business, for united as well as regional agencies. Practice showed that, distinct division is the most essential task for separate regional agencies and affective organizational development of their net. It implies the gradual development according to the accumulation  of organizational experience,  stabilization of financial situation and  equipment with modern organizational-technical means and so forth. At the some time, determined service must be formed gradually and  successively, not only in accordance with the principle of senseless expansion of above men toned factors, but also selecting  the variants which are the most profitable and essential for the agencies in this or that concrete region. It must be said that estimation of perspectives in small and average business support activities is connected with the fact, that its significance is constantly outlined by the central government of the country as well as regional authorities. Of course, it clearly gives the chance to make optimistic prognosis. Unfortunately, in reality, the existed mechanism to support small and average businesses can’t still put into practice not only present-day objective demands, moreover the tasks which are not only possible to be solved but should be , for the development of its investing activities.

Wat is the Programme of Small and Average Business Investment Support?

As it is know, programme realization of investment support in small  and average businesses, may have double substantiation. The first assistance of a small  enterprise development, represents the effective way of solving social and foremost, employment  problems. Thus, conception of social direction for financial support in small and average business fields, follows that, grant realization of socially useful functions in a small business, must be fulfilled by state and society. The second-progress of small and average businesses are significant factor from the standpoint of effective use of people’s economic resources. Due to such approach , from the position of market   economy, defined means for small and average businesses must be considered as profitable investments.

Nowadays, systematical crisis is proceeded in our country. Factual unemployment problem instead of falling is rising steadily and it requires of taking vast  and active measures for small and average business  development. Simultaneously, tensity of central and local budgets  and lack of foreign investments do not give chance to form such material-financial basis, that includes all the above mentioned factors.

It’s clear that the way out of exiting situation can be found in the treatments of conception, such is investing support (and realization)  of small and overage businesses, when all the possible funds used with this purpose will  be spent on forming organizations and such financial machinery, that has high level guaranteeing aptitude for the feedback of invested resources. For the realization  of this conception, several main directions can be singled out, for the fulfilment of investing activity in small and average businesses.

1. Scientific-analytical and informative provision development of investment support mechanism  in small and average business fields.   Here, main goal is to study priority system of financing  for small enterprises, according to essential directions of development  and substantiation of their realization activities with the purpose of reflecting aims at each level. (central, regional as well as small and average enterprises). Strategic research organization and financing, forming development conceptions and treatment of inter-active mechanism for investing support system in small and average businesses. In addition to the point above, the following must be taken into account.

The first and foremost, the mechanism for investment support in small and average businesses must be based on state structural and industrial policy, financing of private investments or definition of essential directions for stimulation, in the section of divisions,  subdivisions and enterprises – definition of so called dot priorities.

Second – towards the formation of mentioned mechanisms, maintenance of scientifically proved approach is accessible as far  as it reflects the real peculiarities of economic development and  investing processes in this or that region.

Third – Improvement of scientific -methodic and informative supply for investment activities, mostly in small and average businesses is simultaneously connected with the existence of investing projects of small enterprises in order to restrict existing risks. The most is financial, technological and marketing accompaniment, i.e. financial analysis, technical examination, and marketing research of investing projects of enterprises in small and average businesses.

2. Reinforcement of objective direction and transfer the obstacle centre of topping-up process of investment activities in small and average enterprises at regional level. It must be taken into consideration that, formation of regional politics of investment support of these enterprises, in accordance with this qualitative index of region economy, that creates the peculiarities for small and average business development and support. Simultaneously, the development level of industrial production, resourceful base, consumers market provision, regional problems of population employment and social  defence must be taken into account. Only complex  consideration of all these factors, gives chance to study those activities that provide attraction of owners of industries for people’s demands in the most suitable fields and stimulation of economic development, first of all at the expense of local possibilities.

Nonexistence of financing, due to the deficit of state and local budgets, is one of the main reasons, that  represents the obstacle for the outcome of central and regional programmers in supporting small industries. In such cases, it is advisable, not only subsidization of industries, but also the assistance for the development of infrastructure in small and average enterprises. (marketing as well as industrial). It must also be admitted, that the state should do its bit to establish special regional banks, innovational funds, informational analitic centers and such organizational-regional structures that serve small and average businesses and keep their interests by means of preferential duties privileged regime of transferring buildings to the possession, licensing, etc.

3. Development  of perspective forms of small and average business support and financing. In this field, for reinforcement of purposeful direction of investing process and raising its effectiveness, local administrations should orientate on the creation of main tendencies of progressive investment infrastructure for small and average businesses. Great attention should be paid to the following factors:

Grade 1. Development of crediting system for the purpose of increasing the number of financial support receivers and simplify the way of giving commercial credits to small industries, implies the expansion of financial institutes net, that realize small and average business crediting with preferential conditions. It includes: lowering interest, extension of crediting term, reduction of demands at the expanse of guarantee and free consultations.

Grade 2. Development of guarantee mechanisms of investing credits, given to small and average business industries must include given state guarantees  to commercial banks, which took part in financing these enterprises. Compensation of  some parts of interests rate. at the expense of commercial credits of banks, could be considered as the significant tendency of using guarantee reserves,  especially at the initial stage of project realization, when returning of funds is still delayed in small and overage business field, for the support of investing business activity.

Grade 3. Financial crediting mechanism of small and average business support, implies the assistance of development, including cooperation of small enterprises and establishment of new mutual – crediting forms of societies in crediting field.

Grade 4. Leasing  development, as the most perspective form, is inevitable process as the most perspective form for small enterprise investors. In industrial countries, leasing includes 25-30% of direct investments annually, but in our country it is not still well expanded. for moving complicacy centre of financial operations from circulation field into real sector of economy in leasing development, it is essential that the participation of reliable commercial banks and insurance companies to be actively stimulated.

Grade 5. Establishment of industrial and technological service  system  in small and average businesses, implies the consideration of this fact that, nowadays, actual reserve of  forming  some element of infrastructure of small businesses, can be usage of industrial capacities and properties of poor  industries, after their liquidation, reorganization and changing profile. (namely, it is possible to locate supporting units of small groups of ownership and enterprises on their base). Distinct experience of realization of such approaches is already existed in a number of regions from the standpoint of industrial-technologic support of industries.

Grade 6. The problem of developing modern tendencies in small overage and large business cooperations has already been matured, e.g. franchise development of small industries in Russia will help to solve many essential economic  and social problems. Here, first and foremost is meant the creation of new working places and broad involvement into business of all these people, who can’t manage it independently, without any support and getting suitable knowledge. In modern conditions, a range of obstacles arised against the franchise development in  Russia: non-existence of special normative-legitimate base and suitable informational insurance, owners insufficient knowledge of running business  by means of peculiarities of such skills and possibilities; nonexistence of sufficient consultative structures; and common financial-crediting problems.

In the development of modern tendencies of cooperation in large and average businesses, financial-industrial groups play a drastic role. According to the practice of development countries, such groups grow the stability of economy and give chance  to solve investing problems. It’s especially important  for the regions, where there are outnumbered branches and subbranches with high investment capacity. Such as: (fuel-energetic complex, wine-making, mineral waters, etc) and conversional enterprises. Financial-industrial groups can become the significant means of realization of state selective structural politics, as with the help of these large integrated structures, it  is easy to carry out rational manoeuvverability in industrial sector; among them, definition and support of prioritative  fields and enterprises.

Grade 7. It’s necessary to put ventural financing schemes into motion and develop investment insurance system in small and average business fields. During realization of the above mentioned schemes,  effectiveness of scientific-research and experimental-constructive works are significantly increased in small enterprises. Innovational campaigns of a small business, in most of the countries function by direct backing of the state, that really estimates their great national-economic importance and due to this is ready to assign corresponding  financial expenses. Innovational small enterprises, technological development funds, incubator of technologies etc. nowadays, in Georgia,  experiments of a range of ventural financing programmes realization, in small and overage business fields take place from foreign financial institutes. These are: European World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Development Credit Bank and so on. In the realization of ventural financing of small business, their experience can be acceptable for Georgian banks and financial institutes. In a country market, the most vital subject is insurance problems. In western countries, the insurance is considered as unavoidable mechanism of risk redistribution. Its increased level in small and average industries, causes a number of difficulties in the working process of insurance companies: herewith, simultaneously insurance and reinsurance, also guarantee systems of credit returning can be created. Perhaps, it is necessary, these systems to be supported distinctly by central and regional organs. (e.g. for specialized risk insurance companies, checking privileges or compensation of their loss). In perspective, Georgian financing crediting system must be filled with specialized net of risk insurance, connected with investment credit issue.

4. Establishment of united investment infrastructure in small  and average businesses. Specialization of financing-crediting system in small and overage businesses can be carried out in two ways: a) Investment. In the way of forming financial organizations, specialized at the expense of investing operations: 6) In the way of orienting, just connected with small business operations. Different combinations of the above mentioned directions of specialization for financing-crediting organizations in small and average  business fields, are also possible. But in any case, these organizations   must be given distinct privileges by  federal and regional organs. Unfortunately, for fear of next “financing pyramids”, at present, population don’t have  eny confidence in establishing these specialized investment banks and sharing investment funds, that assemble the private investors’ funds and after, these are put in small enterprises as well as in small and average infrastructural units as the investment portfolio. Thus, at initial stage ideological training for the sharers of small business and population is necessary. It’s not less important that such specialized investment organizations, for the  purpose of guarantee and getting confidence must be created on the initiative of these state, social and commercial organizations, which are highly qualified in successful running of small business industry field and have authority over this field.

5. The role of small and overage business support agencies in the development of crediting and investment mechanism of this field. In  the regions,  these agencies characterized by a range of peculiarities due to their status, that creates quite profitable atmosphere for them, during the corresponding service. First regional agencies are fully specialized in their field. With  the difference from many other organizations, for which small and average business support is either temporary or accompanying with essential business. These agencies can use their priorities for getting experience and advices, attracting highly trained  specialists, having permanent relationship with  administrative organs and  so  forth. That is why, the service of regional agencies is famous for its quality. Their consultations and other forms of small and average business support are high trained in all, and recommendations – useful and practically acceptable. Second, such agencies have right to use all the various forms and methods of small and average business support, that on its side securing the complexity of their service. Third, from the very beginning regional agencies are involved in federal, regional and local systems of small and average business support; That is very important for the successful realization of their registration, investment and other functions. Fourth, regional agencies take objective part in the whole net of intercommunicated and inter useful organizations, that is practically expanded all over Russia.

In the case of successful development of regional agencies’ net, this advantage can be essential for small and average business support, due to their specialization and professionalism,  treatment of regional politics, development of proper federal and regional programmers and also because of having participation ability in creating similar regional bases.

To maintain the special status and role of their organizations, the staff of regional agencies must take into consideration  well, a main point of the politics of small financial industries  support, that must be realized on different levels of state government, clearly elucidate all the varieties of useful forms, methods and institutes, necessary for the development of this politics; They must easily manage to orientate on the proper segments of investment-financing,  momentary-crediting and stock markets.In the formation and  realization of regional politics of small and average business subjects, the first condition for successful  participation of regional  politics is to know as much as possible about real financial demands of concrete enterprises. But the problem is not only in the manifestation of the demands of additional finances, but also in structural-problematical analysis of the  above mentioned and also in the manifestation of these small enterprises,  that require financial support most of all; afterwards, selecting the most long-range enterprises from the standpoint of future profitability.  (after getting financial support).

The role of regional agencies in deciding these  problems will be shown in working out unavoidable systematic-analytical instruments, in leading proper date basis, creating informational guide and findings fulfilled by general as well as individual orders on the basis of their own estimation. Above mentioned  orders can be as   from enterprises themselves, as from authority and government organs and financial-crediting organizations.

Other direction of activity of the above mentioned  agencies, according to the regional politics context of financial support of small industry, must be the research of possible sources of free funds in the region and in solving financial problems of small and average business or working out principal schemes of their usage in investments.

Evaluation of regional politics structure for financial support of small industry. without the arrangement of systematic monitoring of this sphere, its constructive and in-time correction is impossible.

During the time of special and regular researches of industries, regional agencies can evaluate  programmer realization results in small and average businesses – (for different level budgets and enterprises, which require assistance) in the concrete regions. Also, practical results of giving credits and establishment of regional taxation privileges for small industries.

Thus, regional agencies can take part in the realization and formation of regional politics of financial support in small enterprises and play a mediator role and such a performer, who has to carry out a range of  the functions, which were not paid any proper attention by any kind of elements of regional  infrastructure in small and average businesses. With the help of all these, they would like to assist the growth of investment activity of this field.

The Funkcions of Regional Agencies in the Development of Small and Average Businesses.

Functions of above mentioned agencies, for small and average business support, enquire essential  analysis  in line with the development of progressive investment forms; and in the realization part of prioritative tendencies  of its state support.

1. The role of regional agencies in the development of leasing and franchise. In the development of these progressive forms of small and average business investment, participation forms of agencies can be absolutely different. There are united activities together with the organs of federal level, for getting normative acts and working out methodical  materials; forming statements about taxation privileges, establishment of specialized data banks etc; Parallel  activities at regional level, that supplement central authority actions (e.g. initiative of sentence study about getting privileges for local tax payment , also, independent steps for the development of leasing and franchising.

Such steps represent the following: a) making contact to these firms in Georgia, which are potential organizations of leasing and franchise, working out typical documents jointly (contracts, methodic, checking procedures etc). b) organization of juridical, consulting and informational assistance. (Search and selection of partners, consultations, assistance in teaching and control, etc). c) organization of international cooperation (leaseholders and  franchisers ‘ search in Russia and abroad, assistance in market research, selection of potential clients, adaptation of foreign system of leasing and franchise to Russian conditions, assistance in arranging these technical questions, which include partners separation a long way off, corresponding..service..etc).
d) Organization of leasing and franchise propaganda. (Conferences, Seminars, Symposiums, Coarses, Press and Televise etc.)  Participation in establishment of their supporting centers and also in the development of leasing and franchise association in regional departments. e) Participation in establishing those specialized mediatory  firms, which duty includes: selecting of partners, working of different tasks of leasing and franchise assistance and development on the commercial basis; f) organizational   assistance for the participants  of leasing and franchise system by transmitting buildings and constructions with preferential conditions.

2. The role of small and average business support agencies in the development of industry in innovative field. These agencies can play an important role in getting contact among innovative firms and their providing with necessary  information; They can render assistance to such industries, expressed by investment support. from the side of agencies, main directions of small industries support in innovative sphere are the following: information base development in innovative small enterprises, assistance to establish such data base, were advices about the publication are given in the proper scientific fields; notifications about introduction of distinct types of techniques, about perspective development of scientific-technical approaches. b) rendering assistance of preparing investment projects, in estimation of perspectives of offered scientific-technical projects, in creation and introduction of new techniques and risk determination connected to above mentioned factors. c) in assistance of providing small innovative enterprises  with industrial buildings and equipment and for scientific-research realized by them. d) ensuring of small innovative enterprises with consulting and teaching services and keeping intellectual questions: e) assistance in finding partners and making contact with those enterprises, which work in a joining fields.

The  law on   “supporting the development of small enterprises”   adopted on  23  Jule   1999   is  considered to be the next step toward supporting  the  development  of country’s small and medium enterprises. The law helped to create “the center for supporting and developing small business”. The year 2002 was very important for providing Georgia’s business enviornment with legislative basis and adopting new normative acts.Much attention is presently given to the changes in the law on supporting small and medium enterprises.The law defines the status of small and medium enterprises according to workers’ requirement and annual turnover of their funds. In the same year small and medium business support program 2002-2004 was finished and adopted on president’s descreet.From then on the law has been improving,but the desirable result hasn’t been achieved yet.It is noteworthy that in 1991 there were 600 small enterprises registered .In 1994 their number increased to 12000,in 1995 to 17000 and in 2000 it increased by 20%, in the year 2006 the total number of small and medium enterprises amounted to 22000,thought 28% of the enterprises are inactive.[

In Georgia, mastering new skills for industrial development  in small and average business fields, gives chance to make conclusion that, this field of economy gives vast possibilities for effective investment and its future progress. But it is essential to reveal and put into practice energetically, the most  effective ways of using these possibilities. In connection with this , it must be said, that state policy must be more flexible in the tasks of forming own financial sources of investment, which are the most important at present, for the small enterprises. These industries must be given free rein, while establishing amortization norms, which defines the structure of internal financial  sources of investment (in the job of using internal sources of investments, except the state legislative  support, the effective consultative assistance of small business support organs is also unavoidable). Active  state support is very important for the attraction of external financial sources of investment by small and average business enterprises. Small business characteristics, such as flexibility and mobility, implies that small industries must have ability to increase their financial resources  fast, in any proper time. Its realization is only possible at the expense of borrowed funds. On its side, it includes organizational state assistance in getting funds, guaranteeing commercial funds given to small industries and accomplishing other supporting activities . It is natural that, the progression of this support must be accompanying process of state control reinforcement from the view point of using investment sources and overall development of small and average businesses.

Thuse, the analysis of current social- economic  conditions in Georgia and valuable experience gained from foreign countries show that during transitional period small and medium business must play on important role in forming national economy.

   Small business representis one of the main structures of business, that must establish market economy provide the creation of private business as well as new social class- small and medium business managers and help to overcome the crisis in economy.Small and medium business proved its viability. Their exsistence encourages the mobilization of labour and material resourses creation of jobs,quickly reacts on investments and meets market needs and takes part in state and local budget fulfillment process.

   We must hope that if we use the experience gained from foreign enterprises,we will be able to support small business. From this point of view the structure “Business incubations” is the most effective. Business incubations hasten the development of small business and reduce fail in business by 22%. This question deserved our particular attention because the conditions of small and medium business in Georgia are unfavorable. We approve the creation of business incubations for supporting the small enterprises that have been chosen for some reasons, and their support is exercised by providing them with machinery, services, consultanting and

education.They act to establish contacts between other sectors of economy,grow innovative  activities of business that makes diversification of economy possible and on top of all encourages the growth of small and medium business and their viability.

   Business incubations are flexible structures and merge with infrastructural complexes of region very well. The analysis of functioning business incubations based on world experience and especially of those,like Georgia  enables us to prevent negative consequences and over come current difficulties. Business incbations proved to be fruitful in Post Soviet area. In Russia,Azerbaijan,kazakhistan and Lithuania,but from this point of view Georgia has significanthy dropped behind. We have to do our best to introduce this progressive infrastructural elements in our economy.

Our recomrndations:

   Based on these recommendations we set the goals and main directions of small and medium business development in the following way:

1.    To create a stable enviornment for business with the help of business incubations.

2.    To create  new highly  paid jobs in small and medium business.

3.    To introduce specialized multilateral business incubations.

4.    To provide small and medium business with informational,consulting and financial – credit means.

5.    To Supporing the increase of  independent traders’ number in small and medium business.

6.    To meet the consumers’ needs immediately.

7.    Formation of the enterpreuners’ class that should become the stable guarantee for economic security and overcoming poverty.

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