Business Development Services and Support Organisations

The Institute for Small Business Initiatives (ISBI) at Strathmore University Business School was established in 2015 through a collaboration between ICEP(Austria) and Strathmore Educational Trust, Registered Trustees (SERT).. The goal of the institute is to increase business and financial management acumen in Kenyan small and growing businesses (Small and Medium Enterprises) to spur growth and create employment.

ISBI is a specialized unit that creates tailor-made programs for specific segments of entrepreneurs (in terms of size or industry). Our approach identifies the challenges the segment faces and develops solutions to them through teaching, training, coaching, mentoring, and consulting. As a result, entrepreneurs can detect execution gaps in their operations and explore their optimization potential.

Track Record: Over the past ten years, with our programs, seminars and workshops, we have reached 3,000 entrepreneurs. Through this time, ISBI has understood the operational challenges that small and growing businesses face. We have profiled our findings in research and continue to perform studies on the impact our interventions have on the small and growing businesses ecosystem in Kenya.

Advanced Entrepreneurship Program (AEP)

This is a hands-on, practical, and participant-centered program designed to help SMEs detect execution gaps and explore the optimization potential hidden in their businesses. It reflects the current challenges and emerging opportunities in SME markets created by disruptive innovation, socioeconomic trends, and market volatility.

This program is designed for business owners or key decision makers in companies that meet

ANY THREE of the following criteria:

2 or more years in business

5 or more full-time employees

Fully formalized operations

Undergraduate diploma or higher

Average monthly revenue 750,000 KES

We have carried out 2 impact assessment studies on participating entrepreneurs. The first comprehensive impact-study conducted by Aston Business School, Birmingham, in summer 2019 demonstrated that entrepreneurs who graduated from our Advanced Entrepreneurship Program (AEP) more than doubled profit and created on average 2.2 new jobs. Evidence shows that because of the skills they acquired they have been able to optimize their businesses through better financial and managerial decisions. To date we have trained three hundred and fifty entrepreneurs in AEP.

• Academic
• Accelerator
• Accounting, Account preparation & Audit
• Advice
• Business acceleration
• Business development support
• Business management & strategy
• Community enterprise management
• Financial & Fiscal accounts preparation
• Education
• Financial literacy
• Information
• Logistics advice
• Manufacturing operations design
• Marketing & Branding
• Mentoring
• Resilience & business continuity
• Training

• Young entrepreneurs <35 years old
• Mature entrepreneurs >35 years old
• Farmers / Farming communities
• Women-led enterprises
• Financial technologies
• Enterprises manufacturing products
• Information technology & IT enabled services
• Not for profit community and social enterprises
• For profit social enterprises
• Farmers' cooperatives
• Artisans/Creatives
• Creative industries
• Young entrepreneurs
• Women entrepreneurs
• Farmers' cooperatives (Sectoral Investments)
• International transport & logistics

• All sectors