If you are self-employed or have a small business, join the digital change

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SMEs and self-employed workers have had to adapt to a new context characterized by digital transformation in Spain. To encourage these economic actors on their path towards digitalization, the Government has articulated different aid. One of them is the program Digital Kit. It is aimed at self-employed workers and small businesses with less than 50 employees from all sectors and throughout the national territory and its main objective is to contribute to modernizing the productive fabric.

One of the solution categories that the SME and the self-employed person can choose is the marketplace, a platform on which products are advertised offering a wide range of alternatives to the customer. With the Kit Digital program, the maximum subsidy amount for this category of solution is €2,000 for all segments

The main objective of the category of marketplace is to help the worker direct his references and products to increase the level of sales, optimizing existing resources, choosing the appropriate distribution channels and adapting references and products to external needs. To do this, it is necessary to carry out a previous study of alternatives and register on at least one platform marketplace.

Once you have registered, it is time to complete the competition analysis to improve the decision-making process in search of achieving a competitive position, a prelude to design and define the business strategy. In this last point, we will try to draw the path that leads us to achieving the desired objectives.

It’s time to produce the reference catalog, that is, carry out an analysis of the categories to be marketed to select products aligned with the business strategy. Now we can define the catalog descriptions.Time to upload references, descriptions and photographs to the platform. All ready!

Kit Digital is an aid program of the Government of Spain managed by Red.es, an entity attached to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation through the Secretary of State and Artificial Intelligence. It is financed by the European Union through the funds NextGenerationEU, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, the Digital Spain 2026 agenda and the SME Digitalization Plan 2021-2025. It aims to digitize companies with less than 50 employees and self-employed of all productive sectors in the national territory.

Let’s talk about aid. The digital bonuses that companies receive are €12,000, €6,000 or €2,000 depending on its size. The deadline to apply for Kit Digital aid will be open until December 2024. Currently, around 300,000 digital bonuses for SMEs and the self-employed, which means that nearly 1,350 million euros from European funds have reached Spanish SMEs to implement basic digitalization solutions. Quite a milestone. In addition, a fraud prevention and detection office.

Kit Digital is an innovative program, among other aspects, due to its agility in processing the granting of aid. Under the motto zero papers and thanks to robotization tools, it has been possible to reduce the processing time of a file from three hours on average to three minutes. This agility allows that, if a request is correct, is granted within a period of 15 days. In fact, currently 100% of the companies that met the requirements and have correctly submitted the application are receiving their digital bonus. SMEs and self-employed workers who meet the requirements can apply for aid through one of the four calls that are currently available.

Furthermore, to further facilitate the aid application process, Red.es has created the figure of a “voluntary representative” who may request the digital voucher on behalf of the company or self-employed person as long as they are duly authorized.

The Digital Kit program includes a total of 12 digitization solutions which includes marketplace. The program provides help to, for example, create a basic presence on the Internet, brand positioning and increase visitor traffic or create a business. on-line. There is also the possibility of ask for help and use it for the management of social networks, implement services business intelligence, launch a virtual office or digitize accounting and automate processes in the company. Likewise, you can opt for an application that implements electronic invoices or a cybersecurity system that prevents computer attacks. It also falls within the wide catalog of options the possibility of having a more prominent presence on the Internet, with digital tools that include competitor analysis and services to improve the company’s positioning in search engines.

The Program wanted to give a leading role to ICT SMEs to ensure that digitalization is maintained over time and improves the productivity of beneficiary companies and digitizing agents. Currently, Kit Digital has around 10,900 participating agents throughout Spain, of which 98% are small ICT companies.

The aid payment will be received by the digitizing agent once it has correctly justified the implementation of the solutions and the provision of the service to the SME. In this sense, if the justification is done correctly, the payment period is less than 60 days.

^{*This content sponsored by RED.ES has been prepared by Factoría PRISA Noticias.}