Introduction
The Expand Your Business Programme (EYB) is an integrated business training and support package for small to medium scale enterprises that have growth objectives in mind. These small and medium enterprises that have growth potential are called Growth-Oriented Enterprises (GOEs). The EYB programme is ‘integrated’ because it provides a number of interventions that are important to the growth and expansion of businesses. These are training and non-training interventions.

EYB Vision
The vision of the EYB programme is to assist enterprises that have growth potential to develop strategies to manage the growth of their enterprises. These enterprises are assisted through training in identified management areas and other non-training interventions to strengthen their business operations and develop a business growth plan for their enterprises, resulting in increased sales and profits and expansion of business operations. These enterprises will grow and provide high return on investment, and by doing so also contribute to economic development and the creation of quality jobs.

Programme objectives
The EYB programme aims to achieve the following objectives for the growth-oriented entrepreneur:

1. Growth of the business
2. Increased profits (and sales)
3. Strengthening of the business and its business functions (strategic management, marketing management, operations management, HR management and finance management) and preparing the business for growth
4. Development and implementation of the business growth strategy.

For the ILO and the donor, the objectives are:

1. Developing enterprises that have growth potential
2. Assisting small to medium scale enterprises to develop their capacity to contribute to employment creation and to provide quality jobs
3. Supporting small to medium scale enterprises to contribute to economic growth

The EYB Africa programme was developed by the International Labour Organization, Start and Improve Your Business Regional Project Office for Eastern and Southern Africa, with financial support from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).

EYB components
The EYB programme has both training and non-training components.

The training component has five modules; Strategic Management, Marketing Management, Operations Management , Human Resources Management and Financial Management.

The EYB non-training interventions, necessary for business growth, include individual business counselling, facilitation of business and fnancial linkages and other specialist services, and business support groups. The linkage areas are mainly marketing (export), finance and mentorships and other specialist services such as insurance, computer services, legal services etc. as identified during needs assessment.

Direct outcome of the EYB programme for the growth entrepreneur
The Expand Your Businesses programme is built on two main building blocks:

• Strengthening the fundamentals of the business enterprise to allow the business to grow and free time off the owner or manager to focus on strategic growth issues.
• Develop clear and measurable growth plans for the entire business, starting with growth objectives, which are translated into the work of the entire business, be it its overall strategy, the marketing function, the human resources or the finance function.

Growth Focus of the EYB programme
The EYB programme is a unique package that gives growth-oriented entrepreneurs the practical tools to implement and realize fast business growth and profits. The main output from the programme is a business growth plan for the entire business, which is made up of growth plans developed during training in the Strategic Management, Marketing Management, Operations management, Human Resources Management and Financial Management modules.

Implementation of the growth plan begins straight after the first training seminar in Strategic Management, and other non-training interventions such as individual counselling, facilitation of linkages and business support group are designed to assist in ensuring implementation for the growth plan to realize business growth.