Start and Improve Your Business Training Program in Uganda (Africa)

Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) remains the largest global business management training program that was developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO) with a focus on starting and improving businesses as a strategy for creating more and better employment for women and men across the globe.

It can help you with starting your own business, how to promote your business, how to market your business, how to market your business in Uganda and any place on the globe. It also empowers participants to learn how to grow their business with the identification of small business ideas in Uganda and developing a business plan.

It supports the sustainable development goals by promoting:

Business development policies that support decent job creation, entrepreneurship and encourage the growth of micro, small and medium enterprises as well as productive employment and decent work for all, including the youth and persons with disabilities.

Training Packages – Uganda

The SIYB program is structured into four separate training packages, which are designed to respond to the progressive stages of business development as follows:

Generate Your Business Idea (GYB)

is intended for people who would like to start a business, and who, through the training, develop a concrete business idea ready for implementation.

Start Your Business (SYB)

is for potential entrepreneurs who want to start a small business and already have a concrete business idea. The program is a combination of training, fieldwork, and after-training support, and helps participants assess their readiness to start a business and to prepare a business plan, and evaluate its viability.

Improve Your Business (IYB)

introduces already practicing entrepreneurs to good principles of business management. Its six modules (marketing, costing, buying and stock control, record keeping, planning for your business, and people and productivity) can be taught individually or all combined in a full course.

Expand Your Business (EYB)

enables growth-oriented small enterprises to develop a business growth strategy through training interventions.
The SYB and IYB packages also include the SIYB Business Game, a practical simulation tool to help participants understand the realities of starting and running a business. The EYB Business Game simulates an expanding business during training to help participants experience the impact of strategic decisions on their business operations.

In Uganda, we work with ILO-certified trainers to deliver the above packages. Are you interested in starting a business? Start and improve your business (SIYB) is the course for you. This course will help you cover the most relevant concepts including;

• Vision and Opportunity
• People and Networks
• Customers and Competitors
• Business Processes
• Managing Business Finances
• Start-Up Capital for Funding Your Business

For more details, follow the following links to the ILO website:

• Start and Improve Your Business Programme
• SIYB Implementation Guide 
• Training Packages

e-SIYB tools

The e-SIYB modules are interactive online learning materials, in which participants can find stories of entrepreneurs, activities, quizzes, and tasks for completion. The modules are complementary materials for SIYB Training that are delivered through online video-conferencing or face-to-face. SIYB Trainers and Master Trainers can access the e-SIYB tools through the SIYB Gateway.

We are also excited to learn about the electronic campus. The GYB/SYB and IYB e-materials can now be accesses after being embedded in different e-learning platforms. The ILO International Training Centre has also developed a dedicated SIYB e-Campus, which supports can use to deliver Start and Improve Your Business Training by providing an integrated virtual space for trainers and training participants.

Houston Executive Consulting & the SYIB

Our Company Houston Executive Consulting is partly a product of the SIYB Program that was delivered in 2016. We have since established ourselves to offers advisory services to clients about management best practices.

We share best practices about good governance, record keeping, financial management, etc. Based on the company’s wider knowledge of the business, operating environment, and experience gained from consulting, implementing, and monitoring such projects.

We do this by way of training and technical support to develop and implement the required processes in the businesses. The objective is to groom professionally run businesses and enterprises which result reduces financial & compliance risk.

We are also aware that MSMEs account for the largest share of employment globally and are hardest hit by the economic effects of COVID-19 according to ILO.  The introduction of new digital tools in the SIYB Programme was also designed to facilitate the delivery of SIYB training during the pandemic.