Small Business Column: Time for Irish SMEs to take advantage
Two happenings in the past two weeks have been interesting ones on behalf of the Government. Firstly, the launch of actionplanforjobs.ie where SMEs can go to find local government supports specific to their area. The second has been the Strategic Banking Corporation scheme which aims to give low-interest loans to the SME market.
Forget that that is what micro-finance Ireland does already or that the problem with SMEs getting loans from the system stemmed from the pillar banks BoI and AIB, which is where you’ll get access to these funds. It did however raise an interesting point, how often do SMEs really milk the system?
We talk a lot in this country about people ‘milking the system’, most of which is nonsense but that’s an argument for another day. As small businesses we have a terrible track record of getting involved in government money.
From tenders to grants we sit on the sideline and complain about what we’re not getting, but you have to be in it to win it. We’ve asked the Government to make it easier for small businesses to get better access to the €6bn or so of government money which is available every year in various forms. They are making a number of steps forward in this regard.
However, we have failed to realise that the ball is now in our court. As SMEs we need to start make a real push to making sure that access we’ve gotten gets bigger and better.
That means we need to get involved in the process more, it is only through our participation that the system can learn how to streamline it better for us.
Companies like Tender Scout have made it easier for businesses to get through the front door of the tendering system.
Boasting a high success rate, they have made a business out of getting business for SMEs. A while back I spoke Tony Corrigan from Tender Scout who told me that it gets easier to get more contracts after you win your first one.
“Because you’ve won a contract already” he says “it makes it easier the second time around because you’ve been approved for a tender previously. You have a track record with them and that is so vital. So in many ways the first application is the most important,” he says.
SMEs can also combine their skills with other companies in order to be eligible for a tender. This means that smaller companies can now compete on tenders that have specifics like yearly turnover, where they couldn’t do so before.
That isn’t to say that the system has become plain sailing. Criteria for certain funds seems, at times, to be almost purposefully excluding small business and indigenous business for that matter.
However, government money is government money and with it comes a host of scrutiny. Not least on the Government itself which is charged with doing the best with taxpayer’s money. Although bumping up government buildings’ maintenance costs from €400,000 in 2014 to an estimated €1.4m in 2015 won’t seem like a buy into that idea.
However, it still remains important for SMEs to start taking what is out there to be given. Who out there doesn’t want a slice of billions of euro in government money to add to their company margins?
Well it’s time to stop looking and time to start playing the game. Find out what it takes to win a contract or get a grant. There will of course be paperwork, nobody ever gets money without paperwork, but it could make all the difference in how your business operates for the future. If it’s there why not make it work for you? Time to stop talking and start milking.
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