Tag: cash flow

Determining the right amount of funding a business needs is a common challenge for many small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This is due to several reasons or practical challenges. To begin with, no business is the same. Funding requirements and the use of credit will vary based on business life stage (start, run or grow), operating cycles, growth plans, industry, and market conditions

Age is just a number when it comes to entrepreneurship, and older business owners (60+) have a wealth of experience, knowledge, and ambition to offer. However, when traditional banks deny funding based on outdated lending criteria, these seasoned entrepreneurs can feel frustrated and stuck.

The prospect of expanding your business to a second location might be an enticing opportunity for growth. But it’s a decision you shouldn’t take lightly. Careful planning, critical analysis, and data-informed execution are essential to ensuring your new location’s success.

We live in a world with the luxury of easily accessible information. Let’s face it – as empowering as that is, it can at times feel overwhelming. To keep things simple, we thought we would share a few tried-and-tested behaviours that have proven themselves, repeatedly, to be the most vital elements to get ‘right’ in a business.

There are many challenges for treasuries across the world, in any market, but the developing world has an opportunity for a head start in the switch to digital. This is borne out by the fact that the adoption of best practice treasury management tools, technology and integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that feed off data points all along the ERP value chain, are entirely within the grasp of corporate treasuries.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the beating heart of Africa’s economies. According to the World Economic Forum, as engines of growth, SMEs are responsible for around 80% of the continent’s employment, ultimately helping to reduce poverty and income inequality, enabling the establishment of a new middle class and driving demand for new goods and services.

Black Friday has grown in prominence in South Africa over the last few years and has fundamentally changed the way South Africans shop. While average spending in November has historically been higher than in the first 10 months of the year, it was always well below the traditional festive season trading numbers recorded in December.

In recent years, South Africa has embraced the global phenomenon of Black Friday. While, for businesses in this country, it's tempting to focus solely on the immediate potential that this flurry of buying activity presents, small and medium enterprise (SME) should take a much longer-term view of Black Friday, understanding its real potential to underpin long-term growth.

For many years, the concept of self-made success was considered by many to be the ‘making of the man’, with each generation expected to prove their self-worth by being at least as financially successful as the generation before. However, the adage of shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations continues to this day, with a recent Harvard Business Review article by Stark and Foley finding that 70% of wealthy families studied lost their wealth within the second generation, and 90% within the third.

Investing for the first time can be daunting – particularly when you are building your own portfolio by buying (and selling) company shares. Investing in the stock market is a “zero-sum” game, meaning that for every winner there is a loser. While picking the wrong stock(s) at some point is inevitable, we round out our top tips for ensuring that you end up with more winners than losers and that you can expertly navigate the sometimes wild and always unpredictable ride.