TO PROJECT SUCCESS

As a founder and CEO of HumanConsulting, Galya Menova has a mission to support the development of Bulgarian companies and organisations through European funding. Her interest in the field dates back to her university years when she wrote and defended with excellence her thesis in “European Financing in Bulgaria”. Fourteen years later, Galya is successfully applying her expertise in the development, management and reporting of European projects to the benefit of the Bulgarian business. In 2021 alone, the HumanConsulting team helped its clients attract European grant funding of more than 5 million euros.

Galya Menova has also created the first and one of a kind training programme “Development of successful European projects”, oriented to future experts in the field, managers, and entrepreneurs. In 2021 her company implemented an innovative platform that helps businesses find new funding opportunities faster and easier. HumanConsulting also operates a foundation, which offers free consultations and practical advice to starting entrepreneurs through the “Young Entrepreneur Initiative”.

What opportunities does European funding provide to the Bulgarian business?

European funding provides many opportunities for the development of Bulgarian companies. Starting from the options of purchasing new machines, equipment, and facilities for the production sector, through the construction of renewable energy plants for independent usage, and to the creation of new job opportunities, training courses, qualification and retraining of new employees.

A subsidised six-month employment programme for new employees is currently available, offering 100% funding of the minimum wage and the employer’s health and social insurance contributions. At the end of March, we expect the start of an open call for project proposals under the Operational Programme "Innovation and Competitiveness" for the introduction of Energy Efficient Technologies in SMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises). The funds are from the 2022 tranche of the REACT-EU instrument and amount to around EUR 70 million (BGN 136,226,120).

The list with the upcoming funding programmes is long and my recommendation to business owners is to take interest in the available opportunities and benefit from the chance of faster business development.

Who can actually benefit from these opportunities?

European funding practically gives a chance to any organization, including non-government ones. Of course, options vary according to the type of organisation. My advice to future applicants is to keep track of reliable sources of information, such as the official pages of the EU programmes. Unfortunately, there is quite diverse, and sometimes misleading information on the Internet, so people should be careful.

How do we choose the right consultants for a project?

The best option to choose a proper consultant is, undoubtedly, through recommendation. In order to make the best choice, you can refer to contractors you work with, colleagues, acquaintances or relatives who can recommend a company or consultant with whom they have worked and with whom they have achieved successes.

If there is no such option, you would have to rely on the information on the Internet. Inform yourself online on the company, which you are interested in, taking into account how their website looks – whether it is well maintained and whether it provides current information. You can check out the clients that the consulting company has worked for and the projects that have been successfully carried out. Try to contact their clients and ask them for a recommendation and feedback.

If you haven’t received any guidance and you are choosing at random, look for at least two different options. Never opt for a consultant just because “they have connections”, “behind-the-curtain” information, or can “lobby for” your project. Experience has consistently proved that such consultants can fail their clients’ projects.

If you choose a consulting company with a great number of employees, request to know in advance who would be the expert to work on your project. Even if it is a well-known company, you should know that the professional skills and experience of the certain expert are most vital for the success of your project.

Which necessary requirements should a project meet in order to be funded?

First and foremost, the project should be realistic. The idea of the project should be quite clear and there should be a realistic budget, drawn in advance.

The project should meet all the requirements for the application that are set out in the funding procedure. In case the rules are not followed, the project will be rejected, no matter how unique the idea is.

Your European project will surely fail if you don’t know what exactly you want to do. In other words, if you simply want to receive money through a European programme, but you don’t have a clear purpose or you constantly change ideas, it would be difficult to succeed.

The project you want to fund should be viable even without the subsidy. Statistics show that a huge percentage of successful projects would have been implemented even without a subsidy because they make sense for the client.

How do experts and consultants help in the process?

The role of the expert is of significant importance for the development of the project and its approval but it is also vital in carrying out the project activities, the reporting and the comprehensive management in all processes which lead to receiving the final payments. We often see excellent projects that have received funding but fail in the implementation phase.

Project implementation is undoubtedly the most difficult part of the whole project cycle. Successful implementation depends on many factors, but one of the most important is the work done during project preparation. The clearer the objective and well defined the project at the application stage, the fewer problems there will be at the implementation stage.

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