Introduction
Facilitating business helps businesses to grow in all spheres. They are the specific organisations or individuals that promote trade. Business facilitators simplify lives by rationalising the needs of a company concerning the complexities present in the business.
Business Facilitating Meaning
Facilitating business is a way to arrange the activities of a company so that it contributes to the economy. For promoting business, specific organisations simplify the work and assist people in running business smoothly.
Business facilitating meaning, in other words, refer to the organisations such as banking industries, insurance industries, warehouse department, and logistic wing. These segments help run the business, so they are one of the business facilitators.
Functions of Business Facilitators
Business facilitators are the guides that give structure to corporate decision-making. They provide strategies so that organisations can discover solutions for the problems.
For facilitating business, a facilitator performs the following functions:
Firstly, they intervene in the conversations of business groups and guide the discussion to a productive aspect. They create an environment that welcomes consumers’ suggestions.
Secondly, they help business groups observe and analyse their decisions to achieve their objectives and goals. They help understand theories and models and encourage organisations to experiment with new approaches.
Thirdly, they encourage the business companies to learn so that the people in business organisations can always learn from different situations. The learning process gives new insight and builds a positive attitude among business personnel to develop different perspectives and distinctive approaches toward a problem.
Layers of Business Facilitators
There are three layers of business facilitators:
A-Point of Contract (POC)
The first layer of business meeting facilitation is POC includes the followings:
- Freight Forward: A company or an individual helps supply goods to the ultimate user, be it a consumer or a marketplace. They collaborate with different airlines, shipping companies, warehouses, and other means of transportation.
- Business Incubator: These help a business organisation grow by providing all kinds of financial, technical, and other support. They assist in product launching so that it becomes a success.
- Financial Consultants: They advise and suggest to business organisations on financial matters. They also advise on new investment opportunities, be it a long-term investment or a short-term investment—they recommend investing in international markets and help organisations to arrange funds.
- Merchandiser: They are a kind of business supplier who helps facilitate business by ensuring product produced by the company ends up in the correct type of store at the right time and in the appropriate quantity.
B-Aids to Trade
The government of any country is a gem business facilitator. It is a powerful and dominating factor that affects the working of any organisation. As a gem business facilitator, government frames policies on which the companies operate and provides guidelines for facilitating business. They help businesses to develop and make them progress in the domestic environment. They are the ones who increase the transparency and efficiency in public procurement.
C-Funding and Non-funding Business Facilitators
There are various funding and non-funding regulatory bodies that help in facilitating business. IFCI, SIDBI, EXIM Bank, NABARD are the funding facilitators in India.
The RBI, SEBI, and CCI set rules and regulations for business. IRDA is India’s Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, and TRAI is the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. These are the non-funding business facilitators because they do not invest in the industry. NIESBUD, the National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development, and EDI, the Entrepreneurship Development Institute, train entrepreneurs. Many more non-funding business facilitators help in quality control and the growth of the business.
Apart from these, many organisations support and promote international business.
Necessary Skills of a Business Facilitator
A good facilitator enhances the performance and growth of business organisations. They help to find out creative solutions to the problems. Therefore, a facilitator requires the following skills for successful business meeting facilitation:
- For a successful result of a meeting, a facilitator should prepare in advance. He should have a clear vision of end goals and target to achieve. He should choose the right person, suitable materials, and adequate preparations for the success of the meetings.
- Meaningful communication is essential for understanding and further communicating with each other. An effective facilitator makes sure that every person in the meeting room is clear about the point of discussion, activity, and end goal.
- A facilitator should have good observation skills and be an active listener. He should observe, understand, and then rephrase the meaningful and essential conversations.
- Sense of time and creating a psychologically safe environment is another facilitator’s skill. The meeting of the participants should be secure, and they should be free to share their opinions and keep their viewpoints.
- A facilitator should keep the group focused on the point of discussion. It should easily navigate the business meeting towards the targeted objective and effectively manage the group discussion.
Conclusion
The people or organisations are facilitating business assist the business companies in doing business. They help companies reach their target by assigning responsibility to everyone in a business meeting. They refer clients to the business companies and facilitate the funding organisation to work for the growth of their business. They are responsible for preserving the business’s values, promoting its vision, and helping to set the goals.