Business Advisory Services for SMEs (Förderung unternehmerischen Know-hows)

BAFA Business Advisory Services for SMEs

Provides German small businesses with advisory support for operations finance and growth strategy.

BAFA's Business Advisory Services programme — formally Förderung unternehmerischen Know-hows — is a long-standing, continuously-open initiative that subsidises access to professional management consulting for German small and medium-sized enterprises. The programme's rationale is that large corporations routinely access high-quality external advisory, and BAFA funding bridges the gap for SMEs that cannot bear the full cost. BAFA spent over €3.2 billion across all its funding measures in 2021, reflecting the breadth of its SME-support portfolio.

The programme covers consulting across human resources planning, financial management, and operational administration. It also funds targeted weakness analyses in which an approved advisor diagnoses company-specific vulnerabilities and issues concrete recommendations. All consulting must be delivered by a BAFA-approved advisor — general external consultants who are not registered with BAFA do not qualify for subsidy purposes. Subsidy rates and per-project monetary caps were not published in the sources available for this record and are set to null; applicants should verify current parameters directly on the BAFA SME promotion portal before budgeting. Eligible organisations include for-profit SMEs and certain non-profit entities; universities and research institutions are excluded. There is no company age restriction and no employee-count floor.

Because the programme is rolling with no fixed annual cycle, companies can apply at any time through the BAFA online portal. Applications must be submitted in German. The process involves selecting a BAFA-approved advisor, submitting a pre-approval application, completing the consulting engagement, and then submitting the invoice and deliverables for subsidy payment. Founders and SME owners should confirm current subsidy rates and caps directly with BAFA before engaging an advisor, as programme parameters have been updated over the years.