Tag: small business

So you have started a business. Now you are ready to stand out from the crowd, connect with the right customers, and grow. How do you do that? Here is a hint: you already hold all the answers. Sandwiched between giant brands and low-cost imports, it is easy for a small business owner to feel invisible.

Dedicated to supporting small businesses, I have been reflecting on two decades of change since 2005. What do small business owners, and mentors require in 2025 to thrive? What do future-proof business look like, and how can we ensure our programs remain both timely and relevant in an ever-accelerating world?

Small business owner wellbeing is essential for sustaining growth, balancing challenges, and achieving long-term success in today’s competitive environment. Wellbeing is a key factor in business growth and success, especially for entrepreneurs navigating the often lonely path of self-employment.

For many small businesses, 2022 was a year of unprecedented change, as businesses and consumers adapted to life after the worst of COVID-19. As 2023 starts, consider the following so that you face the the year ahead with renewed determination.

No new business can prosper without access to start-up capital, and the regulatory environment must not stand in the way of this process. In other words, South Africa’s economic future is not served by do-gooder statutory restrictions on financing. As such, significant amendments should be made to the National Credit Act, as well as the Banks Act, to ease pressure on small businesses that seek to finance their growth. 

Historical land dispossession has handicapped South Africa’s economic development, particularly of small businesses and small-scale agriculture. This, combined with continued restrictions on subdivision, lack of secure title, and threats to constitutional property rights, impede rapid land reform and economic growth.

South Africa’s tax laws were designed for a high-income society – a result of a long history of the country accommodating a small, wealthy economy, and a large, poor one. But for a country with tens of millions being either unemployed or receiving very little income, being one of the world’s highest-taxed states does not make sense, particularly when small business growth is so crucially important to our economic future.

There are two customary rules in South African law-making that are adhered to almost to a T: The law must make matters worse, or the law must miss the point. Rarely, if ever, does legislation that comes out of the South African Parliament or the provincial legislatures make things better for citizens and consumers. The new National Small Enterprise Amendment Bill, 2020, is no exception.

The Minister of Small Business Development has been parading a draft National Small Enterprise Amendment Bill. The period for allowing interested parties to submit comments about the draft Bill to the department has just ended. This ill-considered proposal would authorise officials to break contracts deemed 'unfair', no doubt causing commercial uncertainty and thereby discouraging larger businesses from contracting with small enterprises. The Bill defeats its own purpose.

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked financial havoc throughout the nation, leaving many small business owners struggling in its wake. According to our research, 86% of small businesses said they had suffered negative effects as a result of the pandemic and only 14% of small business owners said they had experienced limited effects.