Path to success for SME owners

The SME Provincial Champions project has for the past two years aimed to help owners of SMEs in particular provinces to boost their basic knowledge in order to build business strengths.
Weeranut Chaningam, deputy director of strategic management department at the Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion (OSMEP), said that for the past two years, the project had selected individual SMEs that had demonstrated good basic capabilities and the potential for growth.
The companies, from specifically targeted provinces, had been divided into three groups – start up, rising star and turn-around.
Now the programme is tweaking its approach. 
Weeranut said the past success of the SME Provincial Champions programme would be spread across the nation with the selection of high-potential SME entrepreneurs from each province. They are again divided into three groups, but the groupings have changed – start up entrepreneurs, SMEs with marketing potential, and SMEs in a recovery period.
The participating leaders sign up for the project to develop the potential sustainability of their businesses. With the help of role models, they will work through key business strategies, including diagnosis, involving consultants, and training activities including marketing promotion.
The project aims to build the confidence of the participating entrepreneurs, as they gain knowledge, develop skills, and come to understand the potential for developing their businesses. It also creates a network among entrepreneurs, including access to some of the top entrepreneurs in each province, and continues the mentoring of a new generation of SME entrepreneurs who will one day be the top of their field. In turn, they could help the next generation of entrepreneurs.
“The success of this project will help to drive the growth of SMEs,” said Weeranut. “And to become the driving force that makes a strong and sustainable economy in Thailand.”
For this year’s event, OSMEP has appointed King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) to oversee the SME Provincial Champions project.
Associate Professor Noppadol Maneerat, chief of the provincial champions project this year, said that the expanded project is hoping to build potential model businesses that can help mobilise the economy at the provincial level. Then the lessons from those success stories could be transferred to other entrepreneurs at the regional and national level. The know-how would be backed up and reinforced by the support and promotional initiatives to be launched by government ministries, private sector participants, and other stakeholders.
Noppadol said that individual entrepreneurs who have participated in the SME Provincial Champions project would have access to five consultants from KMITL with expertise in marketing, sales management, packaging, management, and financials – depending on the what input entrepreneurs need to meet their goals. The entrepreneur will leave the project with a practical business plan.
Nattapol Praditphonlert, executive director of the project, said SMEs would also get help developing prototypes and packaging that meet the needs of the marketplace.
This year’s project started on May 1 and will be finished on September 30.
“We hope that the participants in the project will be able to develop themselves to maximise their competitiveness. They could become model entrepreneurs within their province. The success of this project will help SMEs achieve greater growth, becoming the driving force of the country's economy, and creating a strong and sustainable nation,” said Nattapol.
“It is well known that most SMEs often think of themselves as lacking in capital. In fact, they are not, because capital is only a part of business success. From the project’s in-depth assessment of participating business leaders, we found that the reality is that entrepreneurs lack understanding of business models.
“For example, the product of a business might not meet the needs of consumers which, therefore won’t generate sales and the business carries the burden of too much stock. Then, there is a great reduction in the sales price to lower the stock, which destroys the ability to finance the business. When the entrepreneur has a real understanding of the business, they will be able to solve problems and plan their business for the long run,” he said.