Tiberiu Moisa, Deputy CEO, SMEs and MidCorporate, BT, took part today in Entrepreneurs of the Future, an event organised by Biz magazine, where he spoke about entrepreneurs, opportunities and confidence:

How BT is helping entrepreneurs at this time

• First and foremost, we try to be available. That is the most important thing. Whatever matters to clients becomes important to us. In this spirit, although it is not easy, we aim to be present in every funding programme available in Romania, so that anyone planning to finance a business can find many solutions with us. We need to be wherever we are needed so that entrepreneurs can find at BT what they are looking for.
• We are accelerating all our digitalisation processes. Clients’ expectations keep rising, so, with the significant resources we have, we are speeding up this transformation.

What should entrepreneurs know about financing?

• Beyond the bank looking at the financials, the emphasis is on now: how the business sustains itself today, how it acts and how it reorients in the face of current challenges.
• Interest rates are attractive—indeed, they have never been this low. Access to finance is comparable to the pre–COVID-19 period, with the notable exception of sectors that were strongly affected by the pandemic.
• Keep an eye on opportunities coming from EU programmes and other financing mechanisms.

How BT views the entrepreneurial landscape in Romania

• Major business decisions depend on the confidence we have in the future. What we do is influenced by how we think about tomorrow. Looking back over the last 12 months, we remember the severe emotional shock of the first quarter; gradually a period of adaptation followed, even recovery with growth at the end of last year, and then we were all taken by surprise by the third wave.
• There is an almost direct link between how our minds settle, confidence and the way businesses reorient. The entrepreneurial environment evolves on the basis of confidence.
• If we want to understand how the entrepreneurial environment is evolving, we need to go to the grassroots. We will find a wealth of stories—businesses that have grown and sectors that are suffering. The reset and adaptation we talk about today were built on many, often unknown, personal sacrifices. But we are clearly moving forward: our entrepreneurs are better prepared and more connected to the trends of the future.
• Entrepreneurs are the ones who bring change in Romania, in every field. Even for us in banking, whenever we try to understand what is coming next, we look to entrepreneurs who are plugged into finance.
• It is important to have as many independent businesses as possible. This is both an economic imperative—bringing vitality and innovation—and a societal one, because entrepreneurs are a symbol of autonomy and courage. They drive change and, on the back of their sacrifices, successes and failures, the whole economy learns, including large companies.

Lessons learned after 2020

• Before COVID, the Romanian economy as a whole did not look bad; it was growing every year. If you looked only at the figures, without trying to understand the story they tell, you might have thought we were fine. We were not. We were not sufficiently connected to the trends of the future: sustainability, technology, the green economy.
• The pandemic brought us back down to earth and connected us to these trends. We need to embrace digital transformation and the benefits it brings.
• Every business needs to rethink its strategy and its customers, and to earn its place and the respect of its partners every time.
• Periods that follow economic shocks bring changes that can fuel a new generation of entrepreneurs. It happened a decade ago, in the previous crisis. People are more willing than ever to try new solutions; there will be economic stimulus packages and financing mechanisms; people’s savings will fund new investments. In this major realignment there will be plenty to do for people of action... which is good news!
• I am convinced that in 10 years we will be able to talk about major Romanian businesses that started in this period.