SMEs gaining more support from one-stop centres
TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — The number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) benefiting from capability development and operations support from SME Centres has surged almost three-fold to 1,700 last year from about 600 in 2013.
Over the same period, the number of SMEs receiving advice on productivity improvement has nearly doubled from 800 to 1,500, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Sim Ann said yesterday at the SME Centre Conference 2017.
Introduced in 2013, the 12 SME Centres are one-stop shops for local firms to receive free business advice and streamlined access to government schemes to upgrade their businesses through digitisation. The centres are administered by enterprise development agency Spring Singapore and hold advisory sessions and workshops targeted at businesses with less than S$10 million in annual revenue.
In 2014, physiotherapy and podiatry specialist The Sole Clinic approached the SME Centre for advice to improve its business processes, after a recommendation by a client, and has seen its revenue surge by some 70 per cent and customer base expand by 30 per cent.
“Our staff retention rate is now around 80 per cent and we have expanded to three branches,” owners of The Sole Clinic, Mr Wesley Chee and Ms Fiona Hu Wenyan, said.
Besides helping devise a manpower strategy to enhance productivity, the clinic trained its staff in digital marketing to boost its online presence and introduced flexi-working hours to address manpower challenges. It also received advice and help in installing a 3D scanning technology system that reduced its insoles prescription process time from 20 minutes to three minutes per patient.
Meanwhile, beauty and wellness devices firm Aesthetics Marketing received support in business model innovation, which helped the company identify new growth avenues and core areas of improvement, after learning about the SME Centre through a business consultant.
The centre’s advice helped the company to take a holistic approach in marketing its products and supporting its clients with value-added products and services, said Mr Alan Teo, managing director at Aesthetics Marketing. His company now intends to seek more government support in branding and marketing and spreading its wings abroad.
Similarly, home-grown Automation Systems saw a marked improvement in staff retention after approaching the SME Centre for technology upgrading, and receiving government grants that translated into 30 per cent business growth. The company got to know about the SME resource through a trade conference.
“The growth is more structured and leads to better results than if we were to do it ourselves. SMEs don’t have the financial muscle to engage consultants, and such centres are hence very useful,” said Ms Susan Chow, managing director of Automation Systems.
Contributing close to half of the Republic’s gross domestic product, SMEs account for 99 per cent of all enterprises and employ two-thirds of the nation’s workforce. The recommendations of the Committee on the Future Economy as well as the economic initiatives of Budget 2017 were keenly focused on SMEs with a push towards getting them future-ready by embracing globalisation and digitisation.
However, The Sole Clinic’s Mr Chee felt that more support in terms of seeing the business strategy through execution and implementation stages, to help scale up the company’s business, after the consultations and disbursement of grants and advice, would give more confidence and continuity to SME growth.
Other measures announced at the conference included a new SME Digital Tech Hub aimed at assisting local firms in cyber security and data analytics, to be ready in the third quarter of the year. Spring Singapore will also roll out its Tech Depot, a centralised listing of ready-to-go technology packages developed by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), and off-the-shelf digital solutions pre-qualified by the Info-communications and Media Development Authority of Singapore, in the second quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, the SME Centres are looking at group-based initiatives to collectively address common business challenges. One such ongoing project by the SME Centre@NorthWest is targeted at retailers in the Bangkit Neighbourhood Centre. According to Spring, there are plans to implement 10 such group-based upgrading projects, targeting around 300 to 500 SMEs each year.
