Budding entrepreneurs are getting a huge lift from UnionBank small and medium enterprises (SME) Banking Solutions to understand creating a business, and more importantly, starting them.

In an exclusive with Daily Tribune’s “Pairfect,” UnionBank vice president and SME platforms head Jaypee Soliman said that, in following the experience and the journey of small and medium enterprises SME, “We develop, promote and innovate more and more facilities and services that the SME can use to start, expand and all those things that our business needs.”

Also read: Introducing Biz Starter: Checking account for MSMEs, exclusively for UnionBank GlobalLinker members

“If you see the journey of your business, you see points where you need help, that’s where we come in. We have platforms like UnionBank GlobalLinker that allows you to connect to more business owners not just locally and internationally,” he said.

According to Soliman, what is on top of mind of most people when dealing with banks to start a business is that the only help that can be expected from them is a loan contract.

Walking the extra mile 

“But what we learned from different discussions and forums that we have with SME is that there are a lot of other things that a bank can help them with, normally non-banking services. We help a lot of our customers also in finding what is the right business for them. There’s a lot of consultations that’s going on and imagine even our community of SME are helping on this,” he said.

And because UnionBank has a very large network, SME can now start connecting entrepreneurs with potential customers as well, like in terms of business-matching.

“And then, as you grow your business, availing of loans will be easier for capitalization, for expansion and so forth,” he said.

Also read: 6 financing options to help your business stay afloat during and after crisis

Soliman said they also help entrepreneurs figure out what is the best capitalization and starting point for them.

Business planning included

“If you start a business as a sole proprietor, normally there are no big requirements for that. But the way we try to compute it together with a customer is like the way we do with personal savings: you set aside enough money that will last you for the next three months,” he said.

“We plan out what are the activities that will require capitalization which are normally marketing activities, if you’re posting advertisements and how much of business would you be able to generate in the next three months? And if you have to set aside enough capital to fulfill that business.”

UnionBank assists entrepreneurs in looking for the proper creditor, partnering with financing companies to be able to provide the correct type of loan for the business owner

Source: Tribune.net.ph