SME Mentor throws small businesses a lifeline

Recessionary pressures have been getting SMEs hot under the collar for a while and Budget 2013 seemed like the last nail in the coffin. However, holding out hope for small businesses is SME Mentor,

which visited 5 Tier II and Tier III cities (Nashik, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Indore and Baroda) post-Budget in March.

So if rising input costs, fuel prices, logistics and new taxes have knocked the wind out of small businesses, SME Mentor’s ‘Do More With Less’ initiative in each city taught entrepreneurs how to maximise with minimum resources.

On the agenda were hot tips on optimising resources while minimising costs, striking a balance between maximising productivity and profits, and accommodating spiralling input costs without compromising bottomlines.

Speakers Sachin Nigam and Yogesh Dixit, chief drivers of CRISIL SME ratings, offered a macro analysis on the impact of the Budget on the country’s economy and how it would affect SMEs in their own state. The audience was not only thrilled with the macro analysis but was able to assess their own state vis-à-vis other states in the country.

Similarly, entrepreneurs were also able to apply macro-level statistics to the impact of the Budget on their own companies. “With these trends, it is clear that while companies are meandering through the ups and downs of recessionary pressures, it is perhaps the best time for them to sharpen their chisels,” said Dixit. “It is not the time for companies to sit back and moan. It’s the time for them to hone their resources so that they can outperform when good times are here.”

Ameet Patel, Chartered Accountant at SKP Consultants had some valuable pointers on how to deal with taxation specifically with regard to Budget 2013. An eye-opener was Domestic Transfer Pricing, which got many SME’s minds ticking. “We didn’t know anything about Domestic Transfer Pricing,” admitted an entrepreneur from Nashik. “I have attended an event like this for the first time. It was especially informative because tax is a weak area for many of us.”

Kotak Mutual Fund threw small entrepreneurs a googly and camp up with a bag of tricks to help companies “make money from the cash that sleeps between Friday and Monday”. “The amount of money one can make is equivalent to one month’s salary of an employee,” said a triumphant Ashish Deshpande, Vice-President, Kotak Mutual Fund.

Eager to use these new tools and techniques, KP Pathak from Baroda remarked, “I am definitely going to go back and implement all these tips and new concepts in my company. And I will get myself rated by CRISIL!”

What better way to conclude each gruelling session, packed with information, tips and guidance, than with a chance to network with other members of the audience? Sweetened with cocktails and dinner, entrepreneurs were more than happy to say, ‘Cheers to new beginnings’!

You can send your feedback on smementor@moneycontrol.com or simply post comments below