Why is it that governments and politicians speak more and more frequently in their speeches about the support that their governments will “give” to SMEs?
Also banks, practically all, now have a department for " support to small and medium-sized enterprises." This is very nice; but actually it has been coming for about ten years.
Nobody doubts the decisive role that small and medium-sized companies have. They employ 70% and 80% of the workforce and contribute between 25% and 40% of the Gross Domestic Product.
Ironically, governments, rulers and politicians, even banks pay homage (submissive reverence) to the large multinationals that place their immense “religious folder” type industrial plants in our countries to employ 3,000 workers. These companies are granted privileges such as tax benefits, better electricity rates, concessions for executives who come from other countries, etc.
It is true that they generate employment and attract foreign currency to the country, but small and medium-sized companies continue to have the same obstacles to start a new business, to obtain financing and to operate legally in the first months.
SMEs employ thousands of people, activate the economy, most of them are family businesses that generate wealth for them and for the communities where they settle.
What is an SME?
An SME is a " Small and Medium Enterprise ". Its rating is determined by each government according to different criteria or distinctive characteristics such as:
• Total value of assets
• Number of workers
• Annual sales in dollars
The acronym MyPyme is also used, which also includes micro-companies; that percent are very abundant in our Latin American countries.
We find small and medium-sized companies in practically all economic activities: commerce, industry, services, restaurant and hotel businesses, agriculture and even in financial activities. There are also SMEs that are importers and exporters.
Many of the large companies that exist today were once a small or medium-sized company, owned by a single owner or a family group.
The classification of SMEs according to FundaPymes
To this question I answer with resounding and forcefulness: Yes, absolutely yes.
My 30-year experience advising and accompanying hundreds of entrepreneurs, in the most diverse economic activities, have given me the opportunity to witness the birth of businesses in the hands of entrepreneurs, who often without resources and without university studies were creating fortune, to based on a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve, perseverance and using the power of focus, which I talk about so much in my workshops, seminars and conferences.
It is true that small and medium-sized companies face great challenges. Access is difficult for them in the first years of operation. They must comply with all the regulations imposed by the government on large companies. Very few countries have legislation that grants tax benefits to SMEs in their first months of operation, they are not subsidized either, and the guarantees that now exist in some countries to use as collateral in financing are difficult to obtain.
But SMEs have great opportunities for many reasons:
• Decision and control is concentrated closer to the owners. What's more, most are in charge of the business and stay for long years.
• SMEs can manufacture products and offer more individualized services.
• They have great opportunities to support large companies and even multinationals, offering these companies products that they can make at a cost and quality that rivals the option that these companies would have if they did it themselves.
• The rates of return on investment in SMEs are very attractive.
• Many activities are best for small and medium businesses. This is the case of many agricultural and agro-industrial activities, regional hotels, restaurants, services, industrial maintenance companies, and so on.
• A small and medium-sized company can evolve at the rate that the owner considers to have the capacity. They can start as a micro company, where the owner and two or three people, often relatives, work. This personal business can evolve into a small business with 10 or 20 workers, with vehicles, with an administrative structure, basic but its own. And this small business can grow into a midsize business, which is where the greatest profits are generated and the cash flows capable of generating true wealth.
In their initial phases it is very likely that small businesses operate under the name of the owner or founder. As the company grows, acquiring assets, hiring staff and managing bank financing, it will be necessary for it to start operating through a legally constituted company that has its own legal status. There are, in all countries, various figures of this type, among them, partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability companies and corporations, mainly.
Do you have a small or medium business? Is this business a family business or a sole proprietorship? I congratulate you. There are great opportunities in the business world to create wealth, for yourself, for your family and for the community where you have it installed.
Strive to take this business to great heights. Persist, focus your efforts, be clear about your mission and fight so that that idea that you have turned into a business, becomes a company, and that company one day becomes an empire.
Always determine where you are, be clear about where you want to go and have simple and clear strategies to get to that place.
I end this article, with a thought that I mention at the end of some of my talks:
“ Today businesses are being born, which will be large companies in five, ten or twenty years. One of those companies has to be yours. "
I await your comments, and in this article I would particularly appreciate your criteria and suggestions to refine the classification table that we have developed for you.
