The traditional sources of advice arid assistance for any firm come from professional relationships-the with accountants, the bank, the year, the customer, or the supplier.
Moreover, the type of advice, assistance and information that a new firm requires can be both times consuming and cover a wide spectrum. All of the sources of support for an entrepreneur are discussed below:
Therefore, in recent years in both the United Kingdom and the United States, there has evolved a range of advice, assistance, and education focused particularly on new firms and financed, at least in part, by the government.
A diagrammatic representation of the sources of help available to the entrepreneur is seen in Figure.
Table of Contents
Organized sources of support in Bangladesh
Bangladesh does not possess much of an inherited entrepreneurial tradition. Erstwhile Pakistan from which Bangladesh came from did nothing mentionable towards promoting entrepreneurial initiatives.
All their efforts were mainly directed for the then West Pakistan with some very insignificant ones made in name only for the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
Three decades after the emergence of Bangladesh, nowadays there is a number of organizations, governmental & private devoted directly or indirectly to assisting entrepreneurial initiatives. These are:
Governmental Sources of support for the entrepreneur
- Board of Investment
- Bangladesh Shilpa Bank
- Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Sangstha
- Investment Corporation of Bangladesh
- Nationalized Commercial Banks
- Bank of Small and Cottage Industries
- Bangladesh Krishi Bank
- Bangladesh Small Industries Corporation
- Controller of Imports & Exports
- Export Promotion Bureau
- Trading Corporation of Bangladesh
- BCSIR
- Bangladesh Industrial Technical Assistance Centre
- Bangladesh Standards & Testing Institute
- Support Supply Agencies for water, gas,
- Electricity.
- Bangladesh Institute of Management
- Small & Cottage Industry Training Institute
- Bangladesh Shadharan Bima Corporation
Non- Governmental Private Agencies
- Grameen Bank
- MIDAS
- BRAC
- Private Commercial Banks
- Private Insurance Companies
- Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industries
- National Association of Small &. Cottage Industries of Bangladesh
- Leasing Companies
- Proshikha
Small units are also facilitated to set off or carry- forward their losses resulting in a year High rates of an investment allowance, tax rebates, and duty & customs returns are used to encourage the promotion of small units.
Customs debentures are also often used in order to allow deferred payments with a view to sloughing back surpluses for further productive investment.
In order to encourage exports by small business units, cash foreign currency benefits are given on the earnings from exports to those units who are engaged in some exports.
These units also helped to capitalize on the gains earned through the sale of capital assets. The purchase of shares from the stock market & use of the profit & capital gains in such a way is allowed as new investments, hence allowed tax benefits.
Equity finances are also facilitated by the ICB or through a consortium of commercial banks. Risks are taken care of by organizations devoted to the insurance business. Some governmental agencies provide licenses, registrations, fiscal incentives, advice common support & facility services.
BCSIR extends new methods & products for commercial production while the Standards & Testing Institute takes care of raising and maintaining the required quality to win the markets at home and abroad.
Training for developing entrepreneurial aptitude & skills besides functional efficiency – production, finance, marketing, personnel, etc are obtainable from both governmental agencies developed for the purpose and private agencies including some NGOs.
Business Forums often identify hindrances in the way of small business development and present those to the appropriate authorities for an early solution.
Exports of small units are directly helped in various ways by the Export Promotion Bureau including arranging Exhibitions at home & abroad. Organized assistance is not considered adequate.
More resourceful organizations are required to be developed in order to come up with a package of assistance at the one-single point if the public leaders in power really desire to do something meaningful for the promotion & development of small businesses for creating a larger number of self-employment.
Special Sources of support for an entrepreneur to small business
In addition to public policy applying to business generally, some steps have been taken to provide special assistance to small businesses. Other aspects of special assistance provided by the government are discussed below.
[a] Managerial and Technical Assistance
The provision of management and technical assistance to managers of small firms takes a variety of forms. A series of the pamphlet, for example, is published by the Small business Administration under each of the following titles:
- Management Aids for Small manufacturers,
- Technical Aids for Small Manufacturers, and
- Small Marketers Aids.
In addition, separate publications treat miscellaneous subjects pertinent to small business management.
[b] Assistance in Obtaining Government Contracts
Many small firms serve as subcontractors. The Ministries, Directorates, and Corporations in many countries provide active encouragement to prime contractors to engage in subcontracting to small firms.
As subcontractors, small firms have the problem of learning who the prime contractors are and what component parts are available for subcontracting.
Set-Aside Programs: Under the “set-aside program,” government contracting officers and Small Business promotional Agencies and their representatives review purchase orders to select those that may be set aside for exclusive competitive bidding by small firms.
Break-Out Contract Programs: Ina related program called the “break-out contract program,” the procuring agency breaks out suitable portions of a larger contract for competitive bidding by small firms.
For example, the contract for janitorial services might be broken out by a general contractor for housekeeping on a missile installation.
[c] Assistance in Export Sales
To some extent, the export sales problem for small firms is one of the information. The Ministry of Commerce in many countries has attempted to meet this need by supplying small exporters with an array of technical and general information.
The Commerce Ministry also operates major trade fairs aimed at increasing exports and bringing foreign customers to visit small businesses can plants.
[d] The Need to Improve Government Assistance
Existing government programs are obviously no panacea for the various problems of small firms.
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