Fiches Acteur

Non-profit association, made up of business leaders who decided to dedicate a bit of their time, free of charge, to business creators with development potential, future, S.M.E., in the territory of the Lorraine region. Lorraine Entrepreneurship Network® is part of the Entrepreneurship Network, which today federates 42 associations spread over the national territory.

interest and guaranty free loan, evaluation

The role of the Association is to support new creator entrepreneurs or takeover entrepreneurs of future SME, by accompanying them with business methods. The core target of an Entrepreneurship Network® association is the “project with potential,” destined to become a SME. The project bearer must have the ambition of giving a strong strategic dimension to his project from the start and search for financial means for that purpose that measure up to his objective.
The or the candidate must have control of the company and hold the majority of the capital in the company. The management of the business created or taken over must make up the main activity of the project bearer.

The “projects with potential” are characterised by :
- A significant creation of jobs, i.e. at least 6 jobs in 3 years;
- A need for financing corresponding to that of a SME (at least € 70K);
- A strategic dimension of development.

The support of the Lorraine Entrepreneurship Network® to a creator or takeover entrepreneur is of 2 kinds :
- An interest and guaranty free loan reimbursable over 3 years (differed from 6 to 18 months) of a sum of 15 to 50 0000 euros;
- An accompaniment by member business leaders over a minimum duration of 2 years.

The project Bearer must have a real need for accompaniment and manifest the desire for it. He who contacts the Association only in order to obtain an interest and guaranty free loan does not correspond to the target that the Entrepreneurship Network® seeks to help.

The intervention of the Lorraine Entrepreneurship Network® towards a business creator unfolds in 3 phases :
1. Validation/professionalization of the project: 5 to 6 member business leaders or sympathizers of the association bring a professional illumination on one or several strategic or technical points of his project.
2. Interest and guaranty free loan: an engagement committee made up of 5 to 10 leaders of going concerns decide to grant an interest and guaranty free loan of a sum of between € 15 000 and € 50 000 to the creator, so that he can use this sum as owners' equity in his business. This loan is personally reimbursable.
3. Attendance: the "award winning" creator benefits during two years from collective and individual attendance. A club of creators is organized each month by the association’s operational team, an "accompanying" business leader, designated by the association, commits to meeting the creator at least once a month in order to take stock of the business’ activity with him and to evoke all the difficulties that he encounters.

The actions of the association and its members with creators are completely free of charge.

During the year 2007, 97 first contacts were received by the association. Out of these first contacts, 32 were judged to be in the target of the association and lead to a start of project training.
In the 9 first months of the year 2008, 50 projects lead to training :
- 13 were presented to the engagement committee;
- 15 were stopped or reoriented towards other creation-takeover actors;
- 22 were in the process of validation on 30 September 2008.
The committee examined and accepted 11 projects of which 6 concern takeovers and 12 come under the Inno Tech Entrepreneurship scheme.