“I want business leaders to feel pride”

What is your background?

I started my career in the paper industry, in a Gard SME with 70 employees for 14 years where I climbed the ranks as an employee. Then, 10 years ago, I started my own general masonry business with a partner. We were able to make it prosper, train many young people… But like many, we suffered from the Covid crisis. Employees left and could not be replaced. The activity became complicated. Three years ago, I decided to change direction. I wanted to transmit. When I became president of the CPME du Gard, I said to myself: Sabrina, it’s time to do something for business leaders. Today, with my firm, I support entrepreneurs in the piloting and strategic management of their activity.

Recruitment, a recurring problem for companies in Gard

How have Gard businesses been doing since the start of the school year?

We are coming out of a period where we had one crisis after another. Business leaders have been able to be resilient, adapt, show courage… But in recent months we have noticed a certain lassitude. Today, we see business leaders throwing in the towel and selling their business, sometimes even when it is financially healthy. THE recruitment problems, in all sectors, remain the most difficult to understand. Too many companies are forced to reduce their activity or production because they are unable to hire, despite real efforts on wages and working conditions.

What main message would you like to convey to the current Government?

François Asselin, national president of the CPME, met the new Prime Minister last week. He asked her for a job on the simplification of standards, laws, administrative burdens. He also asked that the business taxes are not increased. A better solution to the public debt would be to reduce state spending.

How does CPME du Gard help its members in difficulty?

We have reactivated the Member support commission, who was asleep. It is made up of member experts: accountants, lawyers, specialists from different trades, etc. Members who are faced with a difficulty explain their situation to us and we offer them a solution. individual and confidential appointment with the expert who can best answer their questions. When the meeting is not enough to resolve the problem, we put the member in contact with the institution concerned by their problem: commercial court, Banque de France or tax mediator… It’s always more simpler for a business manager to go through us than to go see them alone.

Rewarding Gard companies for virtuous practices

How do you see the end of the year?

We have a great plan to end the year in style. We are organizing the first edition of ERE – Responsible and committed companies – in the Gard. This event was created by CPME Hérault four years ago. We will reward small and medium-sized businesses committed to one of the eight pillars of CSR. My wish is to promote business leaders on virtuous practices that they put in place. Applications have just opened. All Gard business leaders with fewer than 50 employees, members or not of the CPME, are invited to register. The event is scheduled for December 12 at Kinépolis (Nîmes) in partnership with the Occitanie region, the CMA, Alès Agglo, Nîmes Métropole and Gard Rhodanien. I want business leaders, on this evening, to be able to tell their stories and feel pride in what they do and for all the personnel they have committed to their adventure.