Consultancy Business Coaching

1. General Information

 Title of the project: Rehabilitation of SMEs affected by the Beirut Blast and support to relaunch economic activity

Locations of the Project: Greater Beirut

Total duration of the mission: Mid-December 2021 - March 31, 2022 (3 months and a half).

Target group(s): Business owners of around 5 to 10 small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

2. Description of the project

Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were severely affected by the Beirut Blast (partially destroyed, loss of equipment, etc.) and had to stop or reduce their activities. This represents for them and their employees an immediate loss of income with a risk of layouts if they cannot afford the basic repairs and replacement of equipment to resume activities. SMEs represent 90% of the enterprises in Lebanon. The Beirut Blast was yet another disaster to overcome, as the SMEs were already severely affected by the economic and financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mada supported eighty-five SMEs affected by the Beirut Blast since October 2020 through different projects. The support mainly focused on rehabilitation works and replacing damaged equipment and raw materials. After supporting in the basic material needs for the SME to relaunch its business, Mada is now focusing on building the capacities of some SME owners to adapt better to an evolving context.

Indeed, the Lebanese economic environment has radically changed since October 2019 with an increase in incertitude and higher difficulties for SME owners to run their business. External support is requested by some SME owners already supported by Mada to improve financial management, to increase online sales and to diversify their services.

3. Activity

Mada is recruiting a consultant or a group of consultants to provide one-to-one coaching to 5 SMEs (entrepreneurs or employees) in Beirut and Greater Beirut. Based on a detailed needs assessment done with each SME, Mada identified the following topics:

• Financial management: adapt pricing, assess the profitability of the business, improve the use of financial tools such as Excel.
• Business Planning: set diversification strategies, to help increase profits.
• Use of social media: initiation to the use of social media and more in depth support depending on the capacities of the person receiving coaching/training.
• Communication/marketing: develop online sales and skills in PR, communicating with customers and suppliers, develop a marketing strategy.
• Other topics can emerge at a later stage.

The coaching program will include an alignment session that will be conducted at Mada’s office to introduce the consultant and the program to the SME owners. Following this alignment session, the consultant will conduct 30 one-to-one sessions (in average 6 sessions with each of the 5 selected SMEs). Depending on the SME, they will be conducted with the owner or with the employees.

4. Deliverables

• Initial report including Business Assessment (preparation of a baseline for each SME) and planning for the coaching sessions;
• Written agreement between the consultant and the supported SMEs to align expectations and to put a frame to the coaching program;
• Minutes of Meeting after each coaching session with each SME;
• Final Report (calendar of activities, list of supported SMEs, content of the support provided, comparison before and after the support provided, list additional needs for the future).

The reports will be submitted in English.

5. Timeline and Deadline

Deadline for submitting your offer is December 3, 2021.

The start date of the mission is January 1, 2022.

Final Report deadline is March 20[FK1] , 2022.

6. Working interfaces

• The consultant will be following up with Mada’s Project Coordinator, and will be sending minutes of meeting after each session to the Program Manager and the Project Coordinator.
• The coaching sessions will be implemented remotely and/or physically, depending on the preference of the SME owner.

7. Profile of the consultant

• Demonstrated experience in providing business development support to SMEs;
• Demonstrated experience in providing business training to entrepreneurs on specific topics including: Business Planning, financial management, digital skills, social media, communication and marketing;
• Flexible with good time management skills that will be needed to organize the sessions with the SMEs according to their schedule and availability.

It will be a plus to have previous experience in working with SMEs that were affected by the Beirut Blast.