Start and Improve Your Business Programme

  • A video presentation for the Start and Improve Your Business Programme

Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) is currently the largest global business management training programme with a focus on starting and improving businesses as a strategy for creating more and better employment for women and men.

It supports the sustainable development goals by promoting:
  • Business development policies that support decent job creation, entrepreneurship and encourage the growth of micro, small and medium enterprises
  • Productive employment and decent work for all, including the youth and persons with disabilities

What's New

  1. Global highlights

    SIYB update 2018

  2. Brief

    What Works In a Market-Oriented Strategy for SME Development - Evidence From Myanmar

    While BDS market facilitation has been regarded as priority in development programmes, seldom has it been operationalized into tangible activities and results. The incentives for projects to directly deliver and pay for services offered to beneficiaries in order to meet the targets are strong. This brief explains how the BDS market facilitation approach was implemented for two projects in Myanmar and presents the results and key achievements.

  3. Brief

    The Next 15 Million: Entrepreneurship Training At Scale – New Data On The Global Outreach Of ILO’s Entrepreneurship Training

    A global tracer study on the ILO’s entrepreneurship training program Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) showing that global outreach more than doubled in the past five years. With 15 million participants SIYB is the most popular entrepreneurship training program.

  4. Publication

    Does the combination of vocational and business management training produce extra benefits?

    There is growing evidence that the combination of services work better than a single service delivered in isolation; exploring cases in this area and finding the best way of managing combinations is thus of high relevance for the design of job-creation initiatives.

  5. Publication

    Green Business Booklet

    Going green is not only good for the environment, but makes business sense too, as the greening of enterprises results in improved access to markets, higher productivity and cost savings. The Green Business Booklet is part of the Green Jobs packages and the Start and Improve Your Business series of products and helps aspiring entrepreneurs to come up with a green business idea and existing entrepreneurs to green their businesses.

  6. Evidence

    What works in Entrepreneurship

    This new website summarizes the results of recent studies on what works in youth employment, including interesting findings on the impact of entrepreneurship training programmes.

  7. Event

    2016 Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition

    The winners of the Competition in the categories Best Ideas 2016 and Best Projects 2016 were announced in the Entrepreneurship Summit in Berlin in October 2016. Enter to this section to see the winners of the competition.

  8. Article

    Business Practices in Small Firms in Developing Countries

    This independent study uses the contents of ILO's Improve Your Business (IYB) training curriculum to measure whether improved business practices have an impact on enterprise performance in small enterprises.

Key Resources

  1. News

    2017 SIYB Update

    The 2017 SIYB Update includes news on 2016-2017 SIYB activities in 33 countries around the globe, details on the newly updated SIYB website in English, French and Spanish with new marketing material, and the presentation of new SIYB material adaptations and the SIYB Global tracer study.

  1. THE NEXT 15 MILLION
    SIYB Global Tracer Study 2011-15

    This study traces the outreach of the "Start and Improve Your Business" (SIYB) programme and some other key achievements, including estimates of its impact. The report has been prepared for practitioners in enterprise development who want to use SIYB, as well as any other organization or individual engaged in entrepreneurship and management training.

  2. Brochure

    Start and Improve Your Business Brochure

    SIYB is one of the largest global business management training programmes. It helps small-scale entrepreneurs to start and grow their business, as a strategy to create more and better employment for women and men.

  3. Publication

    SIYB Implementation Guide

    The SIYB Implementation Guide is intended as a practical tool to support the introduction and roll out of SIYB activities at country level. It provides step-by-step guidance for the successful implementation of SIYB.

  4. Publication

    Synergies at Work: Does the combination of business training and access to finance produce extra benefits?

    This paper presents three cases in which SIYB business management training was offered as an added service to clients of microfinance institutions. Understanding the costs and benefits of providing such a combination of services, both for the institution and for clients, will help development practitioners determine whether to invest in such an intervention.

  5. News

    SIYB Update - August 2016

    The August 2016 SIYB Update includes 6 pages of highlights on news on 2015-2016 SIYB activities in 31 countries in all regions (14 in Africa, 7 in Latin America and 10 in Asia); details on the SIYB and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) paper; details on the Youth Employment Report and an abstract of what will be included in the Global Tracer Study for 2016