Small Business Counseling Course (SBCC)

The Small Business Counseling Course is a two weeks program for SME counselors to develop or strengthen their competencies in diagnosing problems of potential or existing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and developing appropriate strategies to these.

Counseling small business entities is one of the principal services provided by institutions and individuals involved in enterprise promotion. This type of intervention invariably complements other interventions used in enterprise and entrepreneurship development such as training, research and information and credit.

The development of competencies in the field of business counseling involves a lengthy process. Small business counseling knowledge and skills may be acquired through a number of ways such as training, reading of relevant literature and manuals, and accumulation of experiences in the field.

But if developing counseling competencies through training is to be effectively done, a learning by doing and enjoying while learning approach in the training program for business counselors would be an essential input. Furthermore, the training program has to have a practicum or on the job training component to ensure that what has been learned in the classroom is properly applied in actual assistance to clients.

At the end of program, participants will be able to:

• Determine and apply appropriate counseling styles
• Explain the basic steps in the counseling process
• Demonstrate effective techniques in developing relationship with clients
• Brainstorm on needs and problems salient to various types of business
• Brainstorm on issues affecting different industry sectors
• Demonstrate the use of appropriate tools and techniques in
  
  
  • Assisting clients and select suitable business projects
  • Assisting clients formulate plans based on their selected projects
  • Assisting clients set up basic policies and operating procedures and systems
  • Assisting clients enhance their entrepreneurial competencies
  • Assisting clients diagnose their internal and external environment, identify core problems, generate alternative solutions to these problems and formulate improvement based on chosen solutions to their problems.