Tag: Small and Medium Enterprise (SME)

Forget outdated consumer demographics and marketing personas. Even knowing your customers’ names and preferences is no longer enough. According to a Marketing & Sales Practice report by McKinsey, 71% of consumers now expect personalisation. This expectation raises the bar for customer retention and engagement.

Small businesses in South Africa manage multiple priorities, such as business efficiency, innovation and growth. Many overlook the value of claiming the full range of tax benefits available to them amidst these daily challenges.

As the nation waits for the rescheduled delivery of the Budget Speech on 12 March, many wonder what tax announcements to expect. The delayed budget and VAT hike mean small business owners, in particular, remain on tenterhooks as they anticipate the rate hike. This increase would see the VAT rate rise from 15% to 17%, which could significantly impact businesses.

We are urging all young entrepreneurs to secure their businesses’ long-term success by ensuring their full tax compliance by February 28, 2025.

For more than half of all South Africans, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the reason they are currently employed. This vast network of entrepreneurs, representing 98.5% of South Africa’s commercial enterprises, contribute 40% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

There is a problem with Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) programmes in South Africa. We are finding out the nature of the problem and what can do about it. South Africa has a strong financial and capacity development landscape for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs).

In today’s digital age, data-driven insights have become the cornerstone of business success. These insights help businesses thrive. Understanding customer needs provides a greater competitive edge. Additionally, analysing financial data helps businesses plot their growth. This allows them to fulfill their full potential. The benefits of data in the business world are endless.

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition published draft vertical restraint regulations for comment along with a memorandum to provide context in respect of the draft regulations. These regulations relate to the prohibition on restrictive vertical practices as set out in section 5 of the Competition Act, 89 of 1998 and attempt to provide a framework on how the Competition Commission should approach practices which are potentially prohibited in terms of section 5 of the Act.

Internationally, 75% of startups consider partnerships with corporates critically important to their success, with a further 63% anticipating that these relationships will gain even greater importance in the future. In South Africa, however, corporates’ support for entrepreneurs is lacking and must be urgently remedied by the country’s businesses.

Open banking and open finance are buzzwords in the financial sector that have been sparking curiosity. They are frameworks that allow authorised third-party providers (companies or services that offer financial products/services to consumers) to access financial data from banks and other institutions via secure application programming interfaces (APIs).