Bridge Europe Consulting has worked with various microenterprises in fields such as manufacturing, construction, services and tourism.  We assessed their situation and identified the growth enablers.  Situations have been very different, from requiring an enlarged team to support expansion and reducing the involvement of the owner in daily operations, to undertaking various investment projects.

Our involvement resulted in different types of achievements:

–       Designing a clear vision and strategy:  defining clearly their offering, the market in which they operate and identifying their USPs

–       Designing a growth plan

–       Enlarging their teams (some have quadrupled their staff).  This is mainly because the business owner was doing many of the activities within the company and was 100% involved in the operations.  The company needed staff to take over some operational activities, to provide some time for the business owner to work on his business rather than in his business.  Having more time and also more brain power , he could focus and work together with our team on the growth plan and tactics

–       Developing investment projects to purchase new equipment, computers and other necessary instruments

–       Tapping into new markets or at least offering more services to their existing target group

–       Increasing their turnover with a minimum of 30% in the first year after we started working with them

–       Some repositioned themselves on the market and have undertaken a branding exercise

Other benefits delivered to microenterprises include:

• We helped them obtain financing for their investment projects.  Many could access funding via ROP 4.3 (Regional Operational Programme, Priority Axis 4: Strengthening the regional and local business environment, Key Area of Intervention 3 – Supporting the development of micro-enterprises), and we had obtained grants amounting to EUR 200,000 each (maximum offered, 100% of the eligible costs).
• Several investment projects have been funded under the National Programme for Rural Development, Measure 3.1.2 – “Support for setting up and developing microenterprises” and Measure 3.1.3 – “Promoting tourism activities”.

Most of the projects have been in the following sectors:

–       Construction

–       Services

–       Production

–       Agribusiness

–       Accommodation and travel industry

Many of these projects have been completed.  We are still working, however, with those business owners who want to grow their companies further.  We have recently performed a repeat diagnosis for some of these clients.  Whilst they have made huge progress compared to where they were 2 years before, they still have a long way to go.  We have recently identified the current growth enablers, and we shall probably soon embark together on a new challenge.