Find out more about our business activities:

Profile

Projects

Topics

Start-up Support:

Cultural industries:

Additional topics:

paying close attention and providing targeted advice

As iq consult, we do not provide fixed standard solutions– our work is always based on the true requirements of our clients.
We pay close attention and we look for solutions from different angels.
We develop targeted economically feasible solutions – in close exchange with our partners.
New regional, national and European projects always benefit from our previous experience.

Find out more about our business activities:

Project development

A good idea can change much. Together with partners in regional and national ministries, political administration, enterprises, cultural institutions and foundations iq consult forms realistic and feasible visions.
Experience from comparable tasks are applied into new projects.
In our two main sectors of start-up support and cultural industries we add to existing services, improve them on an outcome-orientated basis and make them accessible for all partners.

To provide high quality is our central motivation.
Our projects are addressed to entrepreneurs, cultural actors, young enterprises and non-profit organizations. Starting with a sound problem analysis and going via development up to controlling iq consult orientates towards the aims of the partners and the interests of the users.
Our national and European-wide cooperation with more than 50 partners and institutions is an important foundation of our success.

Contact person: Thorsten Jahnke

Projects developed by iq consult:
enterability
enterprise
finance factory Pankow
culture in change
stattkapital

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Business-, organizational- and process development

iq consult advises and assists young enterprises and non-profit organizations in developing future strategies, realising new ideas and in coping with crisis situations. Moreover, iq consult advises public institutions in developing new planning intentions and their wish to realize them.

Our spectrum of services includes:

  • analysis of existing business-, performance- and organizational processes and the development of business- or organization-related future scenarios
  • assistance and support with the preparation of business plans
  • preparation of project-related expert opinions including problem-orientated recommendations for action
  • moderation of development processes

iq consult relies on its considerable resources of experience, on the diverse and specialized knowledge of our team and on solid network partnerships.

Contact person: Norbert Kunz

References:
StattAuto CarSharing AG
Association aid for people in need
Deutsche Türschließer-Gesellschaft Oscar Müller & Söhne GmbH & Co
Enterprise network (ArGe)
German Association of Start-up Initiatives e.V.
Trockendock Heimstättenbetriebs-gGmbH

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European Cooperation

Regions in Europe get closer to each other. EU-funded programs such as the European Social Fund (ESF), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Interreg and Culture 2007-2013 enable partners to work together across national borders.

iq consult supports this process and develops common approaches and projects for Berlin and Brandenburg together with European partners. In addition, iq consult offers advise and consulting services in creating and realising European partnerships.
Our current partners are start-up support centres, universities, regional public associations, municipal institutions, ministries, and foundations in Spain, Scotland, France, Belgium, Poland, Great Britain, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy.

Our relationships and contacts focus on the areas of business start-ups and cultural industries. They are established to use know-how and experience from other countries and regions for the design and implementation of our projects. At the same time, we offer our results and approaches to other interested European partners.

However, crucial factors for a successful European cooperation are:

  • the targeted choice of suitable partners,
  • the common definition of targets and tasks at the very beginning of the partnership
  • the provision of adequate financial and time ressources for an in-depth knowledge exchange
  • the creation of flexible but binding project management structures

Contact person: Oliver Hirsch

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Interim-management and project management

Market and work conditions of companies and projects can change abruptly:
A lined up business succession, far-reaching restructuring, necessary market adaptations or an unexpected management drop-out require specific actions.
With our interim-management service offer we accompany transition processes or set up businesses and projects anew.
Together with the remaining top performers and partners of the business we set targets and establish the foundation for a successful future.
Initiating development to us means being goal-directed and working with our clients as equal partners. We listen and we look carefully, we analyse the situation, we take the necessary steps responsibly and we finish the task engagingly.

Contact person: Norbert Kunz

Examples of interim-management services:
StattAuto
Waschhaus Potsdam
Deutsche Türschließer-Gesellschaft (DTG)
Ventana film and TV productions
Ventana film and TV productions

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Coaching and Business Mediation

Difficulties with business partners, conflicts in and between organizations, unregulated business successions or general insecurities caused by internal changing processes: Colliding entrepreneurial, economic or personal interests are the source of most conflicts. Imbalanced interests lead to personal dissatisfaction and company-related efficiency losses.
iq consult offers solution-orientated methods by using business mediation and coaching techniques. In this way, conflicts are analysed early and are solved in an interest-related, cost-effective and time-saving manner.
From the clarification of commission to the final agreement we set great store on transparency and understanding and thus we inspire trust on both sides of the conflict parties.
In difficult entrepreneurial decisions or personal challenging situations iq consult gives support with target-oriented coaching offers. Here also our focus is on cooperative teamwork, future-oriented solutions and confidence.
iq consult belongs to the reliable Berlin-based gsub network of business-coaches. “Coaching for young enterprises” is a Berlin promotion program and provides small enterprises that have been on the market for up to 5 years with business coaches on a free and long-term base.

Contact person: Bernd Steinmeyer

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Web-services

  • iq consult advises on web-hosting, web-publishing and web-application development.
  • iq consult supports you with the design of your website and, on request, takes care of the complete web design, also gladly in cooperation with external graphic designers.
  • iq consult prepares data based dynamic websites and also offers you the hosting. We develop web-applications, install communication-platforms and adjust content management systems to your needs. We can also insert the content ourselves, if you so wish.

Contact person: Danny Altmann

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Training and qualification

Personal competences and knowledge are responsible for success or failure.
Consequently one’s qualifications determine not only one’s own development, but also that of the enterprise and organization.
Therefore, in it’s training and qualification offers iq consult puts the person with his/her individual strengths and weaknesses into the centre of attention.
According to the personal training prerequisites iq consult, hand in hand with the clients, arranges individual training targets and creates personal (further) educational schedules on that basis.
Within the domain of start-up support the entrepreneurial passport has been developed.
In 1996 iq consult was first of the Berlin educational promoters to introduce the modular system to the professional catch-up training for young people. This was done with the aim of organizing education individually and efficiently. The success in practise in different vocational fields of the commercial and cultural sector encouraged iq consult to develop a modular training-offer for business-starters, too. Within the enterprise project iq consult has been training young people on their way to self-employment since 1999.
Our training-services are tailored towards business-starters, cultural actors and young enterprises, as well as actors in the non-profit sector.

Contact person: Thorsten Jahnke

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Projects

Framing actively
iq consult forms social changes actively – always in close coordination with our clients and partners.
We develop and implement innovative approaches and test them in practise.

enterprise Brandenburg – young people on the road to professional independence

Target group
enterprise applies to young people up to the age of 27 who are unemployed, live in the region of Brandenburg, have a business idea and wish to set up on their own company.

Offer
Based on the quality criteria defined by the national EQUAL-network “Start-up support”, a 4-stage-model has been developed. It covers the entire start-up process. The phases are subdivided in:

  • profiling (to check the personal suitability)
  • planning and qualification (to acquire start-up competences, to work out a business plan)
  • start (to formally set up and install the business)
  • growth and stabilization (to stabilize the enterprise)

What is unique in Germany is the chance of an allocation of micro loans to the enterprise-protégés: entrepreneurs with a convincing business plan can receive a micro credit up to 5.000 EUR.

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enterability – without barriers towards self-employment

Initiating development: we assist people with disabilities in starting-up a business

Target group
The offers of enterability are addressed to people with severe physical or mental handicaps who are unemployed or are currently threatened by unemployment.

Offers
enterability offers thorough and individual support to entrepreneurs with disabilities.
Target group-specific problems are prominent. Together with the advisors of enterability all effects and consequences of the handicap on the intended business project are analysed and adequate solutions are jointly worked out.
The offers of enterability in detail:
Advise – in personal conversations we take all necessary steps starting with the idea up to the business set-up.
Training – Commercial knowledge and entrepreneurial abilities can be learned.
enterability offers seminars in this sector.
Financing – enterability arranges start-up loans for promising business ideas.

The advise of enterability is open regarding the outcome. If a project doesn’t seem profitable we don’t just advise against it, but rather look for alternatives. Because a responsible consulting company needs to know when to say “better not” if the prospects of a project are uncertain.

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stattkapital (alternative capital) experience cannot be bought – but it can be shared.

Target group
stattkapital targets two groups:

  • young entrepreneurs up the age of 30 years who have started their companies not longer than 4 years ago (“shooting stars”)
  • partners from business, trade and industry and media and culture who want to support young regional economic talents (“angels”)

The project operates in Berlin and Brandenburg.

Offers
stattkapital finds permanent couples between “angels” and “shooting stars” and accompanies their teamwork. Both partners profit from this.
The “angels” offer know-how, experience and contacts. They help the young enterprises to remain on the market. The “shooting stars” give an insight into present economic and social processes and stand for new ideas and views.
The participants of the program are included in the stattkapital-network. With our website and regular network-meetings we offer a platform for individual exchanges and new contacts.

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financial factory Pankow – creating instruments for district-related economic development

Target groups
financial factory Pankow is addressed to district-related small-scale entrepreneurs, business starters and people with start-up intentions who cannot operate within the conventional capital market.

Offers
financial factory Pankow starts with a development phase. Representatives from companies, banks, micro lenders, non-profit organisations and the district-department Pankow form topic-related focus-groups.
The aim is to develop a reasonable microfinance-model for the district and approaches for optimizing of local business cooperation’s.

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Pilot-project JobCenter Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg – feasibility studies for business start-ups out of long-term unemployment

Target group
The pilot-project targets all recipients of ALG II (unemployment benefit) who are registered in the Berlin district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. The clients are referred directly from the JobCenter to iq consult.

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iq consult within the CultureBusinessQuarter in Potsdam

Alliances between Culture and Industry

Target group
Our services target artists and people of the region Brandenburg who work in culture-related professions, either self-employed, carrying on a trade or as employees, e.g. graduates, unemployed people or freelancers who wish to become professional.

Offers
iq consult offers concrete, individual and target-group-specific support.
The clients are being advised personally. The advisors of iq consult analyse their individual situation and develop suitable solutions together with them.
iq consult imparts general knowledge of business management, tax laws and marketing-know-how in seminars.
iq consult supports with financing and arranges loans for convincing business projects.
Faced with decreasing public funding, arts and culture benefit from the help of private financiers, donations, enterprises etc.
iq consult paves the way for cooperation’s between diverse partners and supports the realization of projects that are of mutual advantage to all.

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culture-track Barnim

Art at the track

Target group
The offers of the culture-track Barnim target artists and cultural institutions, small or medium-sized businesses, rail and transport services and art and culture institutions in the Northern Brandenburg region of Barnim.

Offers
Based on an individual demand analysis we offer cultural service providers and companies training and qualification in business management, individual advise and coaching.

In detail that means:

  • We plan your financial concept together with you (incl. public and private opportunities of sponsoring)
  • We work out your PR-appearance and events concepts
  • We advise you on legal issues e.g. on copyright- or public welfare law
  • We support you in arranging networks and co-operations with private entrepreneurs
  • We organize practise-related seminars e.g. on the topics public relation and organisational law

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culture in change

Target group
Culture in change is mainly addressed to cultural service providers and representatives of the elder generation in the region of Brandenburg.

Offers
Culture in change forms focus-groups. Within the project we integrate cultural institutions and representatives from different areas of society in these groups. We initiate a dialog which results in advantages for both sides. The institutions learn more about their target groups and thus they are able to adapt their offers to the needs of these groups. Senior experts are put into the position of directly influencing special offers and services. Together they strengthen the factor culture for the benefit of the quality of life in Brandenburg.

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Topics

Opening up new perspectives

With good ideas, you can achieve a lot. At iq consult, especially those people get a word who otherwise are not listened to very often. We extend our know-how through a permanently growing partner network.

Microfinance

Contact person: Norbert Kunz

Background
For the development of economic activities access to financing is of essential meaning. However for many entrepreneurs and small businesses this access is not ensured. Often they fail not because of poor business concepts but because of a deficient profitability of their small credit-requirements.
iq consult has diverse experience dealing with the difficulties of capital-procurement, particularly within the scope of the development of start-up support systems for economic and socially disadvantaged target groups.
We have been working on the subject of microfinance since 1999.

Target
The aim of this business activity is to establish a regional micro-finance-service, where access to capital can be guaranteed for business starters and small businesses with convincing concepts and perspectives.

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Quality management

Contact person: Florian Brix

Background
The debate on quality has started in the service-sector some time ago. Enterprises of different sizes or content-related lines all face the question of how to implement a quality-management-system into their organization. An orientation is difficult, given the variety of different systems. For many, certification (e.g. according to DIN ISO-standard) is not a possibility due to high costs. The question in the beginning for small and very small businesses should be: What do I need a quality-management-system for? The fulfilment of outside-demands shouldn’t be the leading motive.

Our target
For a quality-management-system to function it needs to be lived and it has to relate to the organization that is meant to live it. We support entrepreneurs, cultural actors and organizations to acquire a functional management of their own services, step by step.

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Profiling

Contact person: Bernd Steinmeyer

Background
The start-up support provided by iq consult within the various projects starts with an assessment of competences. For that purpose we have developed an assessment-centre in which the strengths and weaknesses of persons interested in starting-up a business can be determined. They are then reviewed with the participants, analysing together whether self-employment is a realistic aim and/or what kind of potential alternatives exist for the participant. For those who decide on starting-up, an individual training and advise plan is developed and the respective support organized.

Target
A high-quality profiling helps to provide cost-effective, individual offers. During the transition from school to work or as a basis for the use of further education (respectively the setting-up of a business), it supports the participant’s choice, deepens his/her self-reflection and prevent wrong decisions.

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Business start-up and disabilities

Contact person: Manfred Radermacher

Background
Due to the tense situation on the job market the issue of business start-ups for people with disabilities is more acute than ever before. Quite often a business start-up is the only way to set up a work place suited to the needs of the disabled person. However, severely handicapped people with an excellent start-up business idea often come across open or subliminal reservations. Many people believe that severely disabled people are not efficient and therefore not up to the challenges of self-employment.

Target
iq consult supports severely disabled people who wish to set up businesses. We help to overcome disability-specific impediments and to set up a working place that suits their own needs. The adventure “business start-up” is prepared and realized professionally. Through our model-project enterability, we continuously gain in experience in how to best adapt to the needs of the handicapped.
The aim is to make the public, political officials, administrations and industry sensitive to the issue “self-employment and disability”. We work on the realization of long-term consistent and sustainable structures for the support of people with disabilities who are interested in business start-ups.

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Start-up support for special groups of persons

Contact persons: Thorsten Jahnke, Manfred Radermacher

Background
Because of the current situation on the job-market for many unemployed people starting-up a business is an attractive professional alternative. Some of them are still young and without regular work-experience. Others have to cope with handicaps or have difficulties with the German language due to their background. iq consult has been encouraging, qualifying and advising people in these special living situations who are interested in starting-up in Berlin and Brandenburg since 1999.

Target
iq consult supports people with disadvantaged backgrounds on their way to self-employment using the four-stage-model. Thus iq consult ensures quality-standards which promote demand-orientated, individual and sustainable start-ups. We aim at the improvement of the start-up conditions for disadvantaged groups of people.

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Neighbourhood banking – using local potentials

Contact person: Norbert Kunz

Background
The commercial potential of many districts and neighbourhoods is made up of a variety of small- and very small-businesses as well as business starters. They determine the image and attractiveness of the area and as employers and driving forces they are of essential meaning for the quarter – even though their entrepreneurial aim is first of all to ensure their own gainful employment.
In order to motivate these actors to network with other actors within the district, the general conditions of their economic activities have to improve first. Like many other enterprises they also need loan capital to guarantee liquidity and initiate processes of expansion. Seeing that their credit-requirements as well as their productivity often are low and that they can’t provide bank-compatible insurances, frequently they face problems with the procurement of capital.

Target
The aim of iq consult is to stabilize, connect and develop local potentials. Access to financing for entrepreneurs and small businesses is of particular interest.

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Quality certification

Contact person: Florian Brix

Background
During the last few years, an upward trend related to business start-ups out of unemployment has been recorded.
Many of those entrepreneurs don’t correspond with the common image of self-employed persons who fulfil the necessary requirements for a start-up already.
The conventional institutions for start-up support (IHK, HWK, economic development agencies) mainly cater to the needs of the “classic” entrepreneur.
Freelancers and the self-employed often don’t take advantage of the support-services of chambers and economic development agencies because they don’t see themselves represented or accepted by them.
The resulting gap in the service is being filled by consulting agencies and independent advisors. These advisors do not always possess the necessary qualifications and adequate advisory attitude for the specific needs of the described target group.
This kind of “wild growth” on the service-side leads not only to insecurities on side of the advice-seekers and to the wrong allocation of public funds, but also to a discrediting of serious institutions and qualified advisors.

Target
iq consult supports the intention of the German Association of Start-up-initiatives (VDG) to develop a method for a quality-related accreditation of business advisors. A nation-wide quality standard will provide more transparency and quality on the market of business support.

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Creative industry

Outsourcing of municipal cultural institutions

Contact person: Andre J. Lindebaum

Background
Municipal cultural institutions have been facing enormous challenges for years:
Persistent slashing of the cultural budget and a dwindling number of users of the municipal facilities require new approaches. To prevent closures the municipalities mainly make use of outsourcing and establishment of public and private managing models, with the hope of flexibility and an increase of efficiency. And yet, the instruments don’t often meet their targets because the specifics of the individual case are ignored and therefore basic problems remain unsolved.

Target
iq consult stands for “initiating development” and pursues a holistic approach to advising. The outsourcing of institutions need to correspond with the economic, legal, social and cultural requirements while trying to maintain all services provided as far as possible. They have to be accepted by the people immediately involved and be seen as a chance. Our advisory and assessment work is consequently followed by single- or group-coaching.

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Restructuring of cultural non-profit organizations

Contact person: Andre J. Lindebaum

Background
Cultural organizations are now facing more diverse challenges than ever before:
Usually they are organized in associations and pursue non-profit targets.
Apart from the current debate on the strained changes of the public welfare-law on one side and the associational law on the other, the new opportunities of a starting-up social cooperatives currently determine the scene. Legislators are interested in a revised valuation of the functional and so-called economic business-companies and obviously in an abolition of tax-law privileges. Cultural organizations therefore fear massive cuts and are being confronted with that development.

Target
iq consult advises boards of directors and relevant actors from cultural organizations in the described situation. iq consult creates suitable opportunities for innovative structures and services with them, by adapting to the specific circumstances of the individual case.

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Additional topics:

Social franchising

Contact person: Thorsten Jahnke

Background
Since its establishment in 1999, at a number of expert-meetings enterprise is regularly asked:
Can enterprise be transferred to other Federal states or regions? The answer is simple: yes. The approach of enterprise is that even a proven reliable system is only successful with a regionally connected partner. Thus the regional network-competence of the partner and the nation-wide start-up-competence of enterprise result in the enterprise-cooperation-model being applicable anywhere.

Target
iq consult strives for a nation-wide enterprise-offer for start-up support targeting unemployed young people.
Part of the system enterprise is a standardized quality-management-system and a corresponding external label. The components of cooperation are arranged individually and central enterprise-services are being paid referring to the costs: social franchising.

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Demographic change

Contact person: Norbert Kunz

Background
The demographic change is omnipresent: Life expectancy is increasing while the birth-rate drops. Moreover, many young people are moving from the countryside to cities. The region of Brandenburg is strongly effected by this development due to its high unemployment-rate. Most people misjudge the demographic change as a threat. Yet, it offers organizations and enterprises the chance to find new, financially potent groups of customers amongst elderly citizens. For cultural suppliers this development means there is an increasing number of persons who have plenty of spare time which they would like to spend purposefully. If the cultural institutions are going to overcome their reservations and to respond to the needs of the elder people, then they can achieve two things at the same time: winning a new audience and effectively improving the life-quality of their region.

Target
iq consult supports cultural institutions, municipalities, enterprises and artists in preparing their offers for the demographic change. Our attention is directed to the chances which arise from the social changes and we help the people in charge to use the advantages for themselves.

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Social return on investment (SROI)

Contact person: Thorsten Jahnke

Background
Many organizations and projects produce social, ecologic and economic results that effect individuals, the society and environment.
Some of the results, like profit, can be expressed in cash value. Other results, such as the activation of disadvantaged target groups or the improvement of regional structures, cannot be counted and thus made be comparable, at first. But still, every investor who supplies enterprises with money is interested in the return on his investment. But how is social output measured?
The social return on investment (SROI) combines the commercial return on investment-calculation (ROI) with the measurement of the social return of an investment in cash-units. The measurement and manifestation of the social return in cash-units clarifies the meaning of work towards the organization itself, its employees, clients, investors or a political institution and leads to a competitive advantage.
The method of SROI has been developed in the USA and is already being used in different European countries. In Germany the first pilot-projects are operating, one of which is iq consult’s enterability project.

Target
With the SROI we measure, assess and communicate the social return of our work and projects in a transparent and comparable manner. Thus we offer a basis for decision-making for potential funders regarding the value of their investment in our company iq consult.
With our experience we assist other enterprises and partners in assessing and communicating the social return of their activities.

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Public Private Partnership Initiating cooperation’s – developing a return

Background
Public Private Partnership combines the strengths of public and private actors, resulting in a mutual benefit: The public authority has the opportunity to fulfil their political obligations, even with minimal funds and private actors are able to increase the benefit of their investment or to endow it with a social return.

Target
iq consult sees an economic base for social acting in Public Private Partnership. In the development of new projects or the arrangement of partnerships iq consult integrates public and private actors. While the choice of the public partners essentially depends on the direction of the project, there are diverse possibilities of participation for private companies.
Private participation in social tasks can be extremely fruitful when individual commitment and corporate social responsibility are combined with commercial behaviour.

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