Fund something that actually changes how a business runs.

Two things have to be true at once.

The businesses have to get something real. And you have to be able to show what your funding achieved. Most programmes manage one of those.

What the businesses get: a working relationship, not a licence.

• A brief every morning telling them what needs attention today
• Who owes them, how long it has been, and a message ready to send
• The dates that carry penalties, before they become penalties
• A Business Passport, so they stop assembling the same documents for every buyer
• Opportunities they could pursue, and what is missing on the ones they cannot yet
• Answers about their own numbers, with the source named every time

What you get: evidence, at the level you are entitled to.

• How the businesses you funded are progressing, as a cohort
• How many became ready for things they were not ready for before
• What they pursued, and what came of it
• Clearly labelled recognition on the programme
• Programme branding, agreed with us
• An account of what changed, rather than a count of activations

The firewall

This is the whole proposition, not the fine print. A business that suspects its funder is reading over its shoulder will not tell Business Partner anything worth knowing, and then your programme achieves nothing.

Sponsorship may influence who pays. Sponsorship may influence what is made available. Sponsorship may never influence what Business Partner judges is best for that business.

That last line is a product rule, not a promise. Nothing a sponsor pays enters how options are ranked or what is recommended. If the best answer for a funded business is to keep the supplier it already has, or to do nothing at all, that is what Business Partner will tell it.

Three ways to fund it.

They are different things and we do not blur them, because a business told it has something it does not have will notice.

1. 1. Support the Network

   You fund Market Network itself so that South African businesses can use it. No individual business receives a subscription and nothing expires for anyone.

   Best where you want reach rather than depth.

2. 2. Pay for specific businesses

   You pay for a named group of businesses to have the full Business Partner subscription for a set term. They pay nothing. They are told what is funded and for how long, at the start.

   Best where you know which businesses you are backing.

3. 3. Run a programme

   A programme with a purpose: supplier readiness, market access, procurement readiness. The businesses know what they are working toward and what they will be able to do at the end.

   Best where the outcome matters more than the access.

Paying, distributing and receiving are three different jobs.

One organisation can do more than one of them. We never assume it does, because that assumption is how a business ends up belonging to somebody.

Who pays

A corporate, a sponsor, a development programme, or nobody. Market Network is free whether anyone is paying or not.

Who brings them in

An association, a chamber, an accountant, a buyer. The introduction is recorded and stays recorded.

Who receives it

The business. It holds its own account, its own information and its own decisions, whoever paid and whoever introduced it.

A chamber can run a programme a corporate paid for. An accountant can bring a client in without paying anything. In both cases the business is the one we are working for.

From agreement to evidence

1. 1. We agree the programme

   Who is funded, what they receive, for how long, and what you will be able to see. The reporting boundary is settled here, in writing, before anybody joins.

2. 2. You send one link

   Every business you invite arrives on a page carrying your name beside ours, telling them what has been funded and that their information stays their own.

3. 3. They start the same day

   No implementation and no onboarding project. They send the reports their accounting system already produces and get something useful back.

4. 4. They do the work, we do the preparation

   Business Partner tells them what needs attention and prepares what it can. They decide and they act. Nothing is sent on anybody's behalf.

5. 5. You see what changed

   Reporting on the cohort: what they became ready for, what they pursued, what came of it. Never their private business information.

6. 6. The term ends and they keep going

   When funding stops, the business keeps its account, its history and everything it has built. Market Network stays free. Only the paid part ends, and they are told well before the date.

What you will see, and what you will not.

A count of activated accounts tells you nothing about whether the money worked. We report movement instead.

Illustrative

Businesses participating

240

Business Passport complete

186

Became ready for at least one opportunity they were not ready for at the start

94

Pursued an opportunity

61

Recorded an outcome

38

Cohort level. No business is named. Where a programme reports on individual businesses, each business is told before it joins and can take part without that.

What no sponsor ever receives

• Their financial information, their customers or their suppliers
• What they asked Business Partner, or what it told them
• What they said they need
• Contact rights over them
• Any influence at all on what Business Partner recommends

Funding buys participation for a business. It does not buy access to it.

Tell us who you are trying to help.

Whether it is thirty member businesses or three thousand suppliers, the first conversation is about what you are trying to change and what you would need to see to know it worked. We will tell you honestly whether we can do it.

Have the businesses but not the budget? Associations, chambers and professional bodies bring members in at no cost to anyone. For associations and chambers.