Credit Suisse Project will be hosting a Small Business Information Day event as follows:

23 March 2010

8:30 - 6pm

Indoor Sports Hall next to Morula Sun

Mabopane

The objective of these events is to create awareness, inform and educate small businesses on ways to grow their businesses. This initiative came as a resut of a survey conducted by Swisscontact during February 2009 to establish what are the information needs of SME's and their preferred channels of dissemination and so forth.

The Project will be hosting a series of Small business Information Day events between May and June 2009 in the City of Ekurhuleni. The objective of these events is to create awareness, inform and educate small businesses on ways to grow their businsses. This initiative came as result of a survey conducted by Swisscontact during February 2009 to establish what are the information needs of SMEs and their preferred channels of dissemination and so forth.

The findings proved that one of the reasons outlined by SMEs as a stumbling block to growth, is information asymmetry. To curb this challenge, we decided to take the information right to the doorsteps of small businesses in the townships. These events will see financial institutions specializing in SME funding; SME support programs; BDS service providers; private sector companies commited to enterprise development and value chains as well as other role players in the SME sector, all present and showcasing their services and presenting opportunities to small business owners attending.

The events will take place as follows:

click here for details

During the BDSP Finance Forum held in August 2008 at the Small business Week the need was identified by Business Development Service Providers (BDSP) as well as small business owners in the Western Cape for financial institutions and BDSP to improve their communication channels, specifically relating to information regarding access to Finance for small businesses.

Swisscontact has as a result embarked on a journey to provide a platform for financial institutions and BDSP's to open a dialogue in order to promote access to finance for Small businesses across the board.

Our focus this year is "Access to Finance in times of recession fact/fiction", and trust that you will find this event informative as well as an opportunity to build new relationships.

click here for the invite

click here for directions to the venue