Good practice
FIRMENHILFE, Germany FIRMENHILFE run by the project’s lead partner EVERS & JUNG is an inbound telephone service for small and micro-enterprises in Hamburg. It is addressed to entrepreneurs who either find themselves in a difficult economic situation or are having specific questions on business management topics. FIRMENHILFE also offers guidance to indebted companies and enterprises who are considering to claim insolvency. Due to the fact that public information centres only offer advice on debt management to private individuals, this offer is an important core element of FIRMENHILFE’s guidance. It is important to consider that FIRMENHILFE has the approach to enable the client to help himself. That is to say that it only supports the entrepreneur but doesn’t undertake active involvement in his situation. Next to the telephone advice the client can also be distributed via email or postal mail with leaflets or spreadsheet that deal with certain topics. These are included in the programme as learning lessons. The support of the project can consist of advice in the following main problem fields:
- Financial Planning/Controlling
- Lack of management skills and business organisation
- Mediation efforts to open talks between the bank and the entrepreneur
- Guidance through insolvency
- Acquisition
- Requesting finance for investments, projects and supplementary allowances