Microfinance and Business Development Services in Europe: A Guide on Good Practices

This guide describes twelve good Business Development Services (BDS) practices in Europe. The guide:

• Aims at contributing to the provision of sustainable BDS that are specifically adapted European microenterprises;
• Includes a description of the methodology employed, a contextual and technical description of each good practice, as well as a series of recommendations for their duplication;
• Provides a bibliography and a list of the sources used.

It selects good practices on the basis of their being documented, accessible, based on procedures and methodology that are tested and put into practice, capable of reaching a defined goal, transferable, profitable, effective and adaptable. The guide states that:

• Since their emergence, European microfinance institutions (MFIs) have provided BDS to their clients along with the provision of micro loans;
• Support services are important for microentrepreneurs who often lack technical and managerial skills, information and market access;
• BDS address a wide variety of different non-financial pre- and post-loan services.

The good practices in the guide include the following services to the target group:

• Information;
• Quick orientation;
• Provision of space, infrastructure and interaction;
• Provision of training, advice, monitoring and setting up benchmarks;
• Up-holding market access.