Deadline: 3-Oct-22
With support from USAID, African Management Institute (AMI) and Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE)- South Africa have partnered to offer EMERGE programme to benefit women-led SGBs in a comprehensive and collaboratively designed solution to mitigate the systemic gender inequity in SGB Finance.
The ultimate goal of this programme is to increase rates of women-led businesses accessing finance in South Africa.
The programme learning journey focuses on taking your business through 4 key phases of your journey over a 4 month period. Each stage is approximately 3-4 weeks long. You’ll be supported by key AMI staff during this period including the Programme Facilitator and a dedicated AMI Programme & Learning Manager.
Phases
- Phase 1- Why are you not getting the finance you want?
- Overview: This phase is designed to explore what finance providers look for when deciding if they will provide finance. It also focuses on the challenges entrepreneurs face in accessing finance. This phase will help you review your organisational risks to identify business practices and key tools to address those risks.
- Objectives:
- Explore what finance providers look for when deciding to provide finance to a business
- Understand the reasons why people do not access finance
- Assess your business against core criteria for funding
- Addressing some of the key barriers to accessing finance with practical tools.
- Phase 2- How to maximise your chances of success
- Overview: This phase is designed to focus on accessing finance for . It will look at the different financing options available for businesses, the benefits and drawbacks of each, and what the requirements would be to access finance for the business.
- Objectives:
- Understand the different categories of finance available for businesses
- Review the pros and cons of different types of finance available in the market – including the specific landscape of finance products available to you
- Practice pitching for finance and look at the reasons many businesses are not successful
- Prepare for access to the finance process – and dig into the ‘Preparing to Access Finance for your Business’ tool
- Phase 3: How to seal the deal
- Overview: This phase is designed to provide participants with an understanding of the importance of storytelling and speaking up in their professional and personal lives. It looks at how to craft stories that can communicate powerful messages about leadership, initiative-taking and how values should shape of their behaviours. The phase also builds people’s confidence in speaking up and sharing their stories.
- Objectives:
- Help participants identify when to speak up and how to talk about what’s important
- Learn how to use storytelling to help people understand why certain things are important and what should be done
- Gain confidence and courage in speaking up, especially when they feel things aren’t right or when they need to lead with confidence and courage
- Phase 4- Access to finance
- Overview: Businesses that successfully complete the 3 learning phases above will be linked to financial providers.
Funding Information
- Generated annual revenue of R500, 000 – R5,000,000 in the last financial year
- Years in Business: Operational for more than 2 years
- Duration: 4 Months
Key Benefits
- Address barriers to accessing finance with practical tools
- Learn how to implement critical business practices that will plug gaps impeding ability to access finance
- Enhance your power skills
- Learn how to build leadership confidence through crafting and communicating powerful storytelling and pitching techniques, initiative-taking and using values to shape behaviours.
- Access Finance
- Businesses that successfully complete the learning journey will be linked to relevant financial providers.
- Networking and Peer Learning
- Businesses in the programme will receive access to peer learning and collaboration to work through challenges and encourage you to keep driving toward your ultimate goal.
Eligibility Criteria
This Programme is for:
- Women-led businesses in South Africa experiencing challenges in accessing finance
- The main participant and applicant must be the CEO, Managing Director, Owner, or Founder of the business and must be an active participant in the programme.
For more information, visit https://www.africanmanagers.org/emerge/