Nordea Launches the Business Support Program “School of Opportunity Private Lessons in Business”

Willing-to-be entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply for the Nordea Business Support Program “School of Opportunity Private Lessons in Business”. The scope – to provide professional advice or individual coaching and mentoring consultations to help start business from generation of an idea until attraction of investors. The program is implemented by Nordea in cooperation with SSE Riga Mentor Club and “Baltic Coaching Centre”.

“This is an utterly new type of business support program, which, opposite financial support mechanisms, will help with opinion and advice. Monetary resources always have some limit, whereas our aim is to raise motivation, venturousness and purposefulness of the potential entrepreneurs, i.e. to develop one’s knowledge and skills to be able to constantly generate new ideas on how to attract necessary funding. Consequently we will organize a meeting of the most successful participants and potential investors this fall”, told member of the management board of Nordea Jana Strogonova.

“Private Lessons in Business” is a sub-program within the framework of the Nordea training program “School of Opportunities”. Till May 31, 2010 Nordea customers aiming to launch own business can apply for free of charge business consultations to be received within the successive 4 -6 months. Coaching sessions will help the participants of the program to formulate their business ideas and define the most effective methods for achieving the set goals. The mentoring consultations from experienced entrepreneurs, on its turn, will be of practical importance for implementation of the business plan. It is planned to organize the closing event, i.e. the so-called “speed dating” this fall, when the participants of the program will be able to present their business plans to the potential investors. To apply for “Private Lessons in Business”, please fill out the application form here.

The Shortage of Funding Myth

“Establishment of new enterprises is of special importance for creation of new job places. There are many people that have at least once pondered over the idea of starting one’s own business, however, only a small share of the respondents of the Nordea survey have launched active implementation of their business ideas. The rest name external obstacles as the reason hindering their entrepreneurial incentives. However, at the same time there are numerous entrepreneurs in Latvia that have managed to successfully overcome these existing or imaginary obstacles and are ready to share their experience with newcomers or even help with the necessary start capital,” indicates Nordea Senior Economist Andris Strazds.

In the survey conducted by Nordea  60% of the respondents answered that they have thought about the idea of starting own business, whereas only 5% from them are currently working on their business plans or searching for potential business partners. The rest is of the opinion that currently it “would be problematic to attract funding” (27%), “the economic situation is unsuitable for launching entrepreneurial activity (25%) or that “the business environment in Latvia is not sufficiently organized” (14%).

Coaching and mentoring – a way to implement venturous plans

“Coaching helps set clear goals and develop a plan for efficient implementation of such, thereby also increasing personal motivation to start active involvement, tells Tatjana Dremluga head of the “Baltic Coaching Centre”, President of the International Coaching Federation in Latvia. “In Western Europe coaching is a personal development method applied for more than 10 years, helping to increase business efficiency through practical activities. Studies show that coaching sessions result in double work productivity, increase of overall profit indicators and higher return also from participation in any other training attended.”

The chairman of SSE Mentor Club Juris Grisins outlines: “If the scope of coaching is to motivate a person, then mentoring is based upon practical consultations from experienced entrepreneurs. Creation of own business involves not only development of an idea and a business plan, but it is the entire process of establishment, in-depth understanding of tax, financial planning and human resources issues. Accordingly, the task of a mentor is to render practical assistance based upon one’s own experience or by showing where to look for information and what should be taken into consideration for practical operations in the future. Within the framework of this program the Mentor Club can offer the experience of numerous recognized company managers in Latvia ready to share their knowledge.”

You just have to try!

The scope of the program “School of Opportunity Private Lessons in Business” is to encourage entrepreneurship. Besides, even if the first business will not be that profitable as expected, most likely the new entrepreneur will proceed with some other business idea. The results of the Nordea survey prove that the majority of current entrepreneurs, respondents, would take up a paid job only in case of extreme urgency (38%), whereas 18% indicated that they would never ever seek paid employment because are used to “work for themselves”.

About the „School of Opportunity”

The training program „School of Opportunity” consists of two parts. First of all, it is a free of charge training for unemployed, that is provided since September 2009 in cooperation with the leading professional training and recruitment consultation services in Latvia „Triviums Apmācība”, „CV-Online Latvia”, „Fontes Vadības konsultācijas” and „Demarsch”. Training courses are conducted also by the chairman of the board of the SSE Riga Mentor Club Juris Grisins and Nordea employees – Financial Planning Expert - Zigmars Valtmanis and Head of Small Enterprises Support Department Kristine Lomanovska. In addition, workshops are conducted also by Nordea scholar V ita Brakovska, teaching the course “Supporting your Innovation!”

And, secondly, those are “Private Lessons in Business”, where Nordea provides professional advice or individual coaching and mentoring consultations to its customers to help start business from generation of an idea until attraction of investors. The program is implemented by Nordea in cooperation with SSE Riga Mentor Club and “Baltic Coaching Centre”.