The path from business idea to funds

The Development Fund approved the first 12.6 million dinars for four loans from the incentive program in the year of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs receive a third of the money non-refundable, and loans will be approved every month.

The Development Agency's competition is also underway for obtaining up to 50 percent non-refundable assistance for starting a business. If they provide the other half of the funds, women, young people and entrepreneurs from the poorest municipalities can count on such a benefit.

In addition to financial assistance, free trainings for future entrepreneurs have also started. They are organized by development agencies in 15 cities.

Business beginners are faced with dilemmas - whether to lease machines or buy them, how to do business with banks, how to make deferred payments. One of the trainings is attended by people with higher education and a lack of such knowledge. Sanja is a professor of Serbian, and she went into the business of making pasta by hand. She knows what her biggest problem is.

"Financial management, because I don't know anything about it and I can't get information about it on the Internet, because the Internet can only give half-hearted information," says Sanja Milosavljević.

Zorica doesn't mind because she's an economist. While waiting for work as a mother of two children, she saw what kind of toys they needed. The business idea is creative toys with magnets, made of natural materials.

"I am currently working with a carpenter, who makes samples for me, and based on that we will conclude a financial structure", says Zorica Boljanović.

After a decade of absence from the profession, the land reclamation engineer decided to grow medicinal plants. He will also use his university knowledge.

"Attention must be paid to the field of irrigation, without that one cannot have the expected returns", says Milorad Toković.

With the development agency, an entrepreneur can receive 50 percent of the funds from the state for free, a maximum of one million dinars. He provides the rest himself. Another possibility is to get 70 percent of the money from the Development Fund as a loan, and 30 percent non-refundable.

"Essentially, the quality and sustainability of the business idea is looked at and, if it is a slightly larger amount, over a million and a half dinars, then additional security funds are looked at," explains Assistant Minister of Economy Katarina Obradović Jovanović.

He also adds that commissions have been formed for both programs that decide according to predetermined criteria.

"It will not be about whether someone likes an idea or not, but how sustainable it is on the market," says the assistant minister.

The state has provided 600 million dinars for both programs. The authorities say that information will be available on the website of the Ministry of Economy - to whom and for what purpose the funds were approved.

Prepared by Olivera Petrović Stojančić

http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/13/ekonomija/2331889/put-od-biznis-ideje-do-sredstava.html