Good practice:

Facilitating the administrative maze of entrepreneurship with one single consultancy service

OOG actively stimulates starters by guiding them through all the governmental information and subsidies. More experienced entrepreneurs are counseled on the right governmental support.
According to organisations representing SMEs and retail (Voka, Unizo and NSZ), entrepreneurs needed a single point of contact in Ghent. The consultancy used to be wavering and of doubtful quality so the need was high to establish a skilled, clear-cut platform for entrepreneurs.
Achieving goals by
-Qualitative, easily accessible consultancy
-Facilitating subsidies and matchmaking
-Active collaboration with other city departments (concerning licences, energy saving subsidies and coaching)
-Providing basic information about products of other governmental entities, such as VLAIO: subsidies, innovation, loans and fundings
-Collaborating with local partners and creating a local ecosystem of consultancy services for entrepreneurs (organisations representing SMEs, universities and high schools, industry/university projects, innovation projects)
-Digitalising and reducing the administrative process of applying for subsidies and licences
-Budgeting extra personnel to expand the consultancy services of OOG
Stakeholders
-Other governmental entities
-Local partners
-Internal services (both on content and on IT/legal framework)
Beneficiaries (in numbers)
-Hotels, restaurants, cafes and retail ((+/- 50%)
-Consultancy professions (+/- 25%)
-SME’s (+/- 22%)
-Acquisition/investors (+/- 3 %)

Initially financed by EFRO and the Flemish Hermes fund. Today: structurally and financially embedded in the Economic Department of Ghent.
Initial costs
-75K investment
-150K consultancy
-60K communication
Human capital: 8.3 fte personnel (5.6 front office, 1.7 back office, 1 teamcoach)

Satisfaction survey: 92.5% is pleased with the service
Yearly budget for start-up contracts and subsidy improvement is expended
Newsletter has more than 6.000 members
Number of OOG users increases: 3300 cases in 2019, 3650 cases in 2020 (duplication compared to 2010)
No creation of start-ups or jobs; OOG only wants to guide starting entrepreneurs. With the right information and financial support, entrepreneurs are stronger, which leads to more sustainable entrepreneurship.

-Reducing administration (online requests for subsidies and licences)
-Unifying all city departments concerning entrepreneurship
-Creating a platform with VLAIO where the entrepreneur has a contact overview and a product overview of the government
-Expanding of the resources

It is hard for entrepreneurs to start a business without governmental support, but the incredible maze of governmental information and subsidies can be challenging and even discouraging. Thanks to the optimal, persistent support of OOG, start-ups have one single point of contact for all their questions on this topic. If OOG cannot help them, they are able to refer the entrepreneurs to the right account manager (intern of extern).
OOG wants to point starting entrepreneurs in the right direction, therefore creating a good, flourishing business climate is crucial. Through first-level support OOG supports more and more start-ups. Nevertheless OOG focuses more on quality, on a strong enterprising environment, than on the amount of start-ups.