Celebrating International MSME Day 2019: Why Business Link Pacific exists
Business Link Pacific (BLP) plays an important role in supporting small and medium sized enterprises in the Pacific region. As International Micro-, small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day is celebrated globally for the third consecutive year, we felt it was important to acknowledge the type of support we believe makes a genuine difference in facilitating and sustaining business growth.
Since the BLP initiative was established by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2017, the BLP Network has assisted over 164 small and medium sized businesses (with between 5 and 50 employees) in Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. The over 50 business advisors members of the BLP network have facilitated incredible transformations, increased growth and improved business operations, helping business with the advice they require to thrive.
The United Nations and the International Trade Centre recognises that smaller companies make remarkable contributions to the global economy and while they can be flexible in a changing business environment, their size can make them vulnerable while also grappling with a lack of access to finance, the inability to identify international market opportunities and navigating trade-related procedures.
This is something that the Business Link Pacific team can attest to, a lack of access to the tools, advice and support needed for growing businesses to continue growing, due to either a lack of awareness of the business advice available or a lack of financial means to access this advice.
Reliable business advice can have a significant positive impact on small or medium sized businesses, as we have seen through the experiences of many across the region that have worked with the BLP advisor network. Business Link Pacific exists to connect small and medium sized businesses in the Pacific to local advisory services, which stimulates a sustainable local market for business advice.
We start by encouraging growing businesses to take the BLP Business Health Check. We believe it’s important for the client to identify where business advice can best be utilised in their business for maximum impact. From there the client is matched with a local good quality and reliable service provider that can address the identified need.
The type of advice and support required varies; assistance with tax compliance and regulations; migrating to cloud-based accounting software; writing and implementing a marketing strategy, constructing a long-term business plan; each case is different and we do our best to connect the growing business with the most relevant service provider that can supply them with the knowledge and practical skills they require.
The majority of the business advisory service providers in our Advisor Network are BLP approved, which means they have been through a rigorous quality assurance process to ensure they are suitably skilled to provide reliable, industry standard business advice to a growing business.
We even have a comprehensive professional development programme for our service providers, so if they do need to upskill, they can do so with the assistance of experienced business mentors.
A BLP approved service provider can offer their services to small and medium sized businesses at a cost-effective rate, through the BLP Subsidy Scheme. We have learnt through our work in the Pacific region so far and the feedback we have received from growing businesses and service providers alike, that the cost of quality business advice is the main obstacle facing SMEs.
The ability to gain access to quality business advice at a subsidised rate has resulted in a significant shift in a positive direction for many of the small businesses we have worked with.
Each week we endeavour to share stories of these successes, to demonstrate not only the positive outcomes of quality business advice, but also to showcase the incredible amount of talent and innovation inherent in the small and medium sized business sector in the Pacific.
To keep the BLP business advisory service network up to date with the highest standards for business practice, we regularly partner with cutting edge business advisors; facilitate access to the latest technology and support the professional development of future business leaders.
As a team we are incredibly proud of the work the Business Advisor Network is doing in the Pacific region, and believe this aligns with the main objective of International Micro-, Small and Medium Enterprise Day, “raising awareness of the need for greater investment into small and mid-sized businesses in developing countries.”
To those business advisors that make the Business Link Pacific Network and the members to come, we wish you a great International MSME Day; we recognise the contributions you make everyday to the economy and prosperity of the Pacific Islands.
Our ultimate aim is to continue to support and grow the first Pacific business advisory service network, and through this reinforce a robust Pacific region economy.
If you are a small and medium sized business in Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu or Papua New Guinea and would like to learn more about how the BLP programme can assist your business contact:
In Fiji: Kitione Nadaro [email protected]
In Samoa: John Lemoa [email protected]
In Papua New Guinea: Apeo Timoci Tearikifareata [email protected]
In Vanuatu: Yvonne Leo Taiki [email protected]