Access to sufficient and adequate capital to grow and further develop their activities is a difficulty faced by many SMEs today. This situation is compounded by the difficulties in accessing finance as SME financing is considered by many financial providers as a high risk activity that generates high transaction costs and/or low returns on investment. However, improving the access to finance of SMEs is crucial in fostering entrepreneurship, competition, innovation and growth. The Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and National University of Singapore (NUS) jointly organize this seminar to address issues on making value investment, managing private equity and securing financing for SMEs, as part of the "NUS-SBF Business Advisors Program" Series which is aimed at assisting SMEs in the area of business capacity building.

NUS-SBF Business Advisors Program (BAP)

In the face of economic uncertainty, SBF and NUS have jointly initiated the NUS-SBF Business Advisors Program (BAP) supported by SPRING Singapore to assist SMEs in engaging experienced PMETs (professionals, managers, executives and technicians) as consultants or business advisors on short term assignments.

The consultants and business advisors will come with comprehensive skill sets and in-depth experience in various industries. Some have extensive technical backgrounds, while others have strong marketing credentials, and most have considerable experience working in multinational companies. They will be a great source of business ideas and managerial talent for SMEs - to build up strength in core competencies and develop unique value propositions; improve efficiencies; explore new opportunities for growth with new products and services or a lean supply chain; leveraging ICT; or creating new marketing channels.

SPRING Singapore will fund up to 30 projects, at 70% of project fees and the SMEs which benefit will sponsor the remaining 30%.For more information and registration to benefit from the BAP program, please visit http://bizalum.nus.edu.sg/eflyer/2009/SPRINGSBF/nus-spring-sbf.aspx.

Due to limited seats, participants are encouraged to register early to avoid disappointment.