National Finance cooperates with Sharakah to serve SMEs
MUSCAT: A cooperation agreement was signed between National Finance Co (National Finance) and Fund for Development of Youth Projects (Sharakah) to conduct a series of workshops named ‘Calculate it Right’.
These workshops are aimed at making business owners better understand how to calculate project cost, sales assumptions, required resources, operational expenses and the cost of capital.
Ali Abdullah Saleh Al Tamimi, general manager, National Finance and Abdullah Al Jufaili, general manager, Sharakah, signed the agreement. At the signing, Al Tamimi said, “National Finance is committed to ensuring that its operations lead to community development. As such we have partnered with Sharakah given its positive track record in SME development to launch a series of workshops aimed at developing the capacity of SME business owners.”
One of the challenges many faces when starting a business is related to lack of proper understand- ing of how to build their financial model and sales assumptions. Business plans, in general, are built on very optimistic assumptions which are in many cases neither realistic nor directly related to the capacity of the company to produce/provide a service.
‘Calculate it Right’ is a halfday workshop that takes the participants through a challenging yet informative session of how to plan their business financial model. The ultimate objective of the workshop is to help those who are planning to start a business understand the exact requirements they will need and to project realistic financial (sales & expenses) figures.
“We will deliver 10 to 12 workshops across the sultanate in coordination with National Finance branch managers. Business owners who are interested to participate can contact Sharakah or National Finance to get more information. The registration form will be available online. The link to the registration form and further instruction will be available on social media following the hashtag #Calculate_it_Right. We look forward to collaborating with National Finance in this important programme and we hope that it will achieve its objective,” said Al Jufaili.