| What is BDS? |
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| Business Development Services (BDS) are services provided by external business experts (BDS providers) to an enterprise (coir SMEs) in all functional areas where the enterprise needs improvement, enabling the enterprise to become more competitive and grow. |
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| While many BDS providers specialize in certain areas, together as a sector they offer advice and solutions across all of a business’ main functions: from inputs, through production, to final marketing and sales. |
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| Why is BDS important for the coir sector? |
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| Not all coir businesses can address their most pressing business issues on their own. For example: |
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- You may be looking to expand your production capacity, but cannot develop a financial plan required to get a bank loan for the investment.
- You may want to break into new export markets, but do not know which markets to begin with and how to find new clients.
- You may want to improve your production processes, but do not know enough about new technologies to do so.
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| In all of these areas – and more – BDS providers can work with coir businesses to bring the right kind of expertise, at the right time, and at the right cost to help coir businesses address major business barriers and grow their profits. |
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| What does BDS cost? |
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| Like all products and services, the cost of BDS varies depending on the nature of the task (complexity and duration), and the level of expertise of the service provider. |
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| Most BDS providers base their fees on a daily rate for their time, multiplied by the number of days required to solve your business issue. Both the daily rate and the number of days required will vary, depending on the skill/reputation of the BDS provider and the scope of the challenge that needs to be addressed. |
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| How to chose a BDS provider? |
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| The key to selecting a BDS provider begins with clearly understanding the key business constraint where you feel that expert support from another party could help you. Based on this, develop a terms of reference for the service that you require. Then solicit bids from different BDS providers, requiring them to specify what services they will offer you, over what period, and for what price. |
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| The key is to ensure that you solicit bids from more than one BDS provider, so as encourage competition between them. This will improve the quality of the proposals that you receive from them. |
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| How can AlappuzhaBDS help? |
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| AlappuzhaBDS can help you throughout this process. We can consult with you in defining your business problem, help you draft the terms of reference for the BDS providers, and guide you in selecting a BDS providers that best fits your needs. |
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| Can AlappuzhaBDS help with the cost of BDS services? |
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| AlappuzhaBDS has a limited funding mechanisms by which to support interesting and high priority BDS initiatives in the coir sector. This funding mechanisms is available to all coir sector SMEs in the Alappuzha area. |
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| The level of cost support that we offer varies, depending on the type project and the cost of services proposed by the BDS providers. However, it will seldom exceed 50% of the total fees, and will most often range between 15-35%. |
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| How do begin working with AlappuzhaBDS’? |
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| Drop by our office any time, or call in advance to make an appointment. Our office location and contacts details are: |
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