VISION

By 2022, to be the leading indigenous management consulting company helping SMEs overcome growing pains in Nigeria

MISSION

To build and transform organizations for phenomenal success

NEXTZON SME FOCUS

We are enterprise builders! We have a passion for helping small and medium sized businesses plan for and overcome growing pains. We see opportunities and solutions where others see major obstacles. We understand the significance of SMEs to national growth and development and apply our proven management consulting toolkit to support and nurture businesses of different stages into institutionalised, structured and established brands.

UPCOMING EVENTS

SME COURSES

Our courses have been developed to ensure that businesses can be certified at the end of the programme of having a clear business health covering strategy, legal, institutional, financial, technology, corporate governance and a standardized business process certificate. They will be taken by proven and tested industry experts in conjunction with our highly experienced and multidisciplinary management consultants. There is a faculty team that will administer the programmes and with quality assurance oversight provided by the advisory board.

ABOUT THE NEXTZON SME CLINIC

This product is designed to help SMEs deal with their current formalisation and business growth challenges. It is an eight (8) week programme with a combination of a business pre-assessment exercise, an intensive two-day residential classroom styled boot-camp with industry facilitators, business diagnosis and goal setting exercise. Handholding sessions are compulsory through webinars, case study review, online group discussions with industry expert, assessment on progress on goals set, scheduled visit to industry mentor and optional on-location visit and additional advisory services. The program offers a connecting platform for participants to meet with organizations that can facilitate access to market, finance and skills.

SME COURSES

Brief introduction

The role that companies’ Boards and Executive Managements play in leadership and oversight is important in the evolution and sustainability of corporates. Large organizations have the structure, people and budget to oversee corporate governance that is typically lacking in SMEs. Nonetheless, the role of corporate governance cannot be downplayed as it forms the foundation for SME growth and development. Entrepreneurs and SME owners/managers must take care to exercise their own “corporate” governance in their daily operations. This entails recognizing the key elements of corporate governance in their operations irrespective of the status of their corporate governance setup.

This course covers some of the key elements of corporate governance and legal framework that SMEs are encouraged to institutionalize in their operations, which in turn would help drive development of SMEs.

Course objectives

  • To help participant understand the importance of corporate governance practice
  • Expose participants to key elements of corporate governance that would help grow and develop their businesses requirements of setting up a board, what key indices to consider
  • Discuss easy and cost-effective ways of operationalizing these key elements in SME operations
  • Content on legal framework. appointment of Company secretary, shareholding information, understanding of legal exposure to infringements of labour laws, regularization of CAC documentation and filing of returns. e.t.c

Brief introduction

Statistics have shown that 8 out of 10 SMEs in Nigeria fail and go out of business within the first 5 years of operation. Further analysis have shown that funding is one of the major reasons SMEs fail. Some fail to attract funding while some others attract insufficient or improper funding and the rest raise funding at the wrong stage of their business cycle.

 

Course objectives

  • To help participant understand the nature and importance of funding in the success of SMEs
  • To show participants how the wrong funding or/and the right funding at the wrong stage of business can lead to SME failure
  • To help participants determine the type of funding that is required for their business
  • To demonstrate to participants that SMEs can successfully access funding with the right knowledge and preparation.
  • To expose participants on how to make their SME more attractive to funds and sponsors.

Brief introduction

One universal feature of SMEs is tight cashflow / budget and as a result SMEs typically do not have the luxury to properly plan, be it start-ups, product expansions or new business lines. However, the age-old saying that “he who fails to plan, plans to fail”, still hold true today, and is one of the reasons why 80% of SME fail within the first 5 years. Cashflow constraints have also resulted in inadequate management of SMEs with Entrepreneurs typically the only manager/ authority figure. Studies have shown that this practice over the years, has limited growth prospects of SMEs and is largely responsible for most of the failures recorded.

 

Course objectives

  • To help participant appreciate the importance of strategic planning and management in SMEs.
  • To expose participants to simple, cost effective ways of developing different types of plans including corporate strategy / plan
  • To help focus participants on critical management areas that would position their SMEs for growth.

Brief introduction

Statistic in Nigeria states that 8 out of every 10 SMEs fail within the first 5 years of operation. But did you know that out of the two that survived, over 75% (3 out of 4) fail within 2 years of the demise of the founder /Entrepreneur? While several reasons are attributed to the failure of the initial 8 out of 10 at the inception of SMEs, the failure of SMEs after the demise of their founders / Entrepreneurs is solely because of a lack of Institutionalization both operationally and in terms of governance. The next two courses are aimed at assisting participants with what is needed to enable institutionalization in SMEs and the key role of Technology as an enabler and control instrument.

 

Course objectives

  • To demonstrate to participants the need and benefits of separating the Entrepreneur from the business and instituting the right structure and platform for growth.

Brief introduction

A large percentage of SMEs’ success comes from achieving the desired awareness and connection with customers and target market. Creating a brand is not just for large corporates. SMEs have to deliberately create their brands and use the same platform for connecting with their target market. As the Nigerian demographics continue to change, the mode of connection is fast changing as well. The next two courses would focus on exposing participants to the traditional and emerging ways of developing brands and creating brand awareness.

 

Course objectives

  • To expose participants to cost effective ways of developing their brand.
  • To help participants appreciate the importance of brand equity and awareness.
  • To introduce participants to the power of social media and the need for a social media strategy.

Brief introduction

Cost management is a critical factor to the success of SMEs. However, SMEs would always be at a disadvantage when procuring items because they do not enjoy the advantage of scale typical of large organizations. Negotiation becomes a valuable skill for any Entrepreneur or SME manager. This course is aimed at helping participant master the art of negotiation and the effective strategies for negotiation available to SMEs.

Brief introduction

Start-ups and expansions are two developmental concepts synonymous with SMEs. SMEs are either starting up or expanding their business and both involve building and development, be it a new office space; shop; workshop; factory; warehouse; showroom; etc. These developmental projects take up significant SME time and resources and could be a major source of distraction, if not outsourced to the right Contractor. The objective of this course is to review techniques for selecting the right Contractor to execute SME projects and effective ways of managing Projects / Contractor.

Brief introduction

  • A popular statistic in Nigeria indicates that 8 out of 10 SMEs do not succeed and go out of business within the first 5 years of operation. In addition to funding and financial risks, Nigerian SMEs are faced with huge business risk and is another significant reason SMEs fail to succeed. In addition to general business risks, SMEs are faced with acceptance issues, policy inconsistency, skill deficiencies and harsh operating environment. How to properly anticipate and effectively manage business risk for survival and growth is the focus of this course.

Brief introduction

  • People are the greatest asset of any organization. This is truer for SMEs as they are still largely evolving and without set systems, structures, funding and market presence. SMEs rely heavily on people to create value out of the limited material resources available to them and develop / implement lasting strategies, systems and structures that would create enduring value for SMEs. However, SMEs typically do not have the resources, including brand to attract the best people to deliver on its goals. This course is aimed at training participants on how to attract, recruit and keep good people despite limited SME resources. The course would also expose participant on how to motivate their human resource and empower them to create value.

Brief introduction

  • Simplistically, institutionalization is removing the Entrepreneur as the channel for reaching the SME and replacing him with more enduring systems are structures. However, these systems are structures are never perfect and one set of system and structure would never serve an SME all through its changing growth phases. The objective of this training is to demonstrate to participants, the value of continuously optimizing their operations and business processes.

ADVISORY BOARD

FACULTY

EVENT GALLERY

To get more information about Nextzon SME Clinic use the Contact form below