Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB)

Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) – is a programme that has been developed by the ILO as a tool with which to meet management needs of SMEs. To build the capacity of entrepreneurs, the programme has designed do-it-yourself training packages that match their different levels of competency. The Start Your Business kit is aimed at people with concrete business ideas who want to start their own business whereas the Generate Your Own Business Plan (GYBI) is intended for people without a business plan who would like to star t a business.

The Improve Your Business (IYB) modules introduce already practising entrepreneurs to good principles of business management, i.e. marketing, costing, stock control, record keeping, buying and business planning. The overall SIYB programme has been successfully implemented in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with a resulting substantial impact on decent work. Recently a new training package EYB for Expand Your Business was launched. The vision of this programme is to assist enterprises that have growth protential to develop stratagies to manage their businesses. The enterprises are assisted through training in identified management areas and non-training interventions so as to increase sales, profits and expansion of business operations.