Benefiting from the support of Groupe VYV, the APESA association works with business leaders in difficulty. Aid that the effects of the health crisis have made even more necessary.
“There is a triple denial in the face of the suffering of entrepreneurs, that of their professional organizations, that of the world of health which ignores it and that of the entrepreneurs themselves”. It is this observation that led Marc Binnié to found the APESA system which he chairs. Out of a spirit of solidarity, but also for the sake of efficiency: “To have a fit economy, you need fit entrepreneurs!”, insists this associate clerk of the Saintes commercial court. A court before which the heads of companies in difficulty arrive, which makes it a good observatory of what can be the employer, financial or moral distress.
With the help of more than a thousand psychologists in France, APESA, which benefits from the financial support of the VYV group, has set up this network to support all those who, despite their entrepreneurial spirit, end up “breaking down” in the face of difficulties. And the health crisis with the eight weeks of confinement and the shutdown imposed on many activities has heavily hit these small bosses in commerce, catering, events, the world of leisure or culture, in all these sectors which, without any possible anticipation, saw their “business” collapse overnight.
A toll-free number set up for the health crisis
And at the same time, all those who are usually at their side to help them, support them, or alert them to their distress, chartered accountants, commercial court judges in particular, have seen their intervention capacities greatly reduced. “These sentries almost disappeared when the crisis broke out,” explains Marc Binnié. In this context, APESA had to react urgently by setting up a toll-free number dedicated to business leaders, not only to provide them with all the practical information on the measures related to this very particular context, but above all to compensate this absence of “sentinels”.
Result, more than 550 calls received in two months and nearly 300 business leaders supported. For lack of being able to physically receive the small bosses mistreated by the crisis, the psychologists most often intervened by videoconference. An availability that has paid off. “An entrepreneur called an adviser from a chamber of commerce just before one of the long weekends in May, says Marc Binnié, and we insisted that this adviser not let the time of this bridge weekend before calling back… there are sometimes near-vital emergencies and we explained to him that if he didn’t do it for his interlocutor, he had to do it for him in order to avoid having a possible drama on the conscience. Since then, the testimony of this adviser has been integrated into the trainings as an example of the role of the sentinels”.
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