Business consulting for small and medium-sized companies.
For businesses working on their business model, sales, organisation or financing. Registered in the programme „Förderung von Unternehmensberatungen für KMU“ (business consulting for SMEs) of the German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA), consultant number 230339.
It is your company that is entitled to apply, not the consultant. Your company can apply to BAFA for a grant towards the consulting costs; BAFA decides on each case individually whether it is awarded.
What the consulting covers
Eligible under the programme is conceptual consulting on economic, financial, personnel and organisational questions of running a company. In my practice these are typically:
- Business model and positioning, when the offer has grown and nobody can say any more where the money is really made
- Sales and quotation system, when a lot of effort goes into enquiries that bring in nothing
- Financial and liquidity planning, costing, capital requirements
- Processes and organisation, including the introduction of a quality management system
- Technology and innovation, for example whether additive manufacturing pays off for you
What is not eligible. Implementation. Consulting on digitalisation is eligible, building a website, an app or software is not. Nor are printed materials, hardware, predominantly legal or tax questions, expert opinions, or consulting that is predominantly about funding programmes.
About a possible grant
That depends on two things: the eligible consulting costs and the location of your company, not mine. The binding rates are published by BAFA itself, and they change with the funding guideline. That is why there are no figures here that could be wrong tomorrow. You can find the current conditions at the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (in German). BAFA's information is also binding for the procedure.
Only one thing is certain: the share that a grant does not cover is paid by your company itself. How high this own contribution is in your case, we work out together in the first call, based on your location and the planned scope.
There is no entitlement to approval. Whether funding is granted is decided by the approving authority on each case individually. Nobody can promise you a grant, and neither can I.
The procedure
Before this comes the first call. It is not consulting within the meaning of the programme, but the clarification of whether your request fits and whether I am the right person for it. It takes place before any application, and I do not charge for it.
From here on the order is mandatory. If it is not followed, funding is excluded.
Only in the first year after founding: information meeting. If your company has been on the market for less than a year when you apply, you must first hold an information meeting with a regional contact point. It is often possible by phone. The age is determined by the date of business registration, for corporations the entry in the commercial register. The meeting is only valid for a limited time, currently three months, so hold it shortly before the application. My first call does not replace it.
Application. You submit the application online to BAFA, before the consulting begins. Retroactive funding is excluded. I help with questions of understanding; you submit the application yourself.
Wait for the response. Only after the response from the coordinating office may we sign the consulting contract and start the consulting.
Consulting. Analysis of your starting point, assessment, then recommendations with instructions for implementation. At most five consulting days.
Report and invoice. You receive the consulting report and my invoice. You need both for the proof of use, which must be submitted within six months.
Two deadlines where things often go wrong. The six months run from the response, not from the end of the consulting. And my invoice must be paid in full within this period; a partial payment is not enough.
In the first call we clarify whether your request is eligible. Afterwards you receive an offer with a fixed scope.