Following the launch of its Business Finance (Small and Medium Enterprise) SME offering to local entrepreneurs, the Real People College of Entrepreneurship is successfully providing invaluable training courses to prospective and existing entrepreneurs.
Kenneth Fisher CEO: Business Finance SME South Africa of the Real People Group says in addition to difficulty accessing finance and a challenging regulatory environment, in many cases local entrepreneurs lack the knowledge and skills required to start and successfully sustain a new business.
“Unlike commercial banks Real People does not require one hundred percent collateral to approve loans, however we do strongly believe that finance and skills development work hand-in-hand. Our new SME finance offering therefore addresses both the financial and training aspects of these challenges,” he explains.
The Real People Group is a responsible lender that offers purpose specific lending to individuals for home improvements, education finance, rehabilitative finance, and SME business finance. The business finance offering serves the needs of both new and existing entrepreneurs looking to source funding in a variety of sectors, even in specialist sectors such as franchising.
The Real People College of Entrepreneurship offers courses ranging from business plan development workshops, small business management courses, sales courses, as well as marketing for small businesses courses. “Our ultimate aim is to partner with entrepreneurs and assist in providing the knowledge and skill to make them successful and keep them successful. This year we aim to train and mentor at least 355 entrepreneurs,” adds Fisher.
The courses are available through either a lecturing option or correspondence and are run by expert tutors, who are professionals in their field. The cost of the course includes all materials as well as the cost of the theoretical and practical examinations where applicable.
Fischer says that equipping entrepreneurs with the right skills while offering them finance together with a tailor-made personalised service is synergistic with the Group’s vision of ‘sustainably improving lives’.
“Ultimately assisting SMEs is about promoting much needed job creation. Our view is that funding without effective ongoing skills support strategies is therefore not going to achieve our aim of sustainably contributing to the development of our economy,” he concludes.
