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SABusinessHub.co.za Unleash South Africa's Entrepreneurial Revolution 2011-11-29T11:30:12+02:00 https://www.sabusinesshub.co.za/webforum/feed.php?f=23 2011-11-29T11:30:12+02:00 https://www.sabusinesshub.co.za/webforum/viewtopic.php?t=6190&p=7685#p7685 <![CDATA[BEE and Small Business in South Africa • Burner 2.0 Irons is beyond my expectation]]> TaylorMade aggregation says the taylormade burner 2.0 are engineered to amalgamate the acclaimed ambit with added feel and playability. "Every 2.0 Irons is bigger than its antecedent and, if compared adjoin the longest, acknowledged adamant we&rsquo;ve anytime made, that says something absolutely significant." After you use this irons, you will acquisition the aberration starts with the attending with the Burner 2.0's two-toned "Burner Black" PVD finish, which is added abiding and resists glare.
In my opinion, taylormade burner 2.0 has outperformed the first-generation Burner, and now it is the best burner band in the golf market. Also the Burner 2.0 Irons are continued abundant that is above your expectation. Every adamant is abnormally advised and able with a altered shaft, bringing in the accessory of assorted club backdrop that advance distance, compatible distance-gaps, added playability and bigger complete and feel. Overall, Burner 2.0 Band is above my expectation. I will acclaim it to my golf friends, If you wish to change your new iron, you ability as able-bodied yield a try this 2.0 irons!

Statistics: Posted by jacksmithly — Tue Nov 29, 2011 11:30 am

]]> 2011-11-02T09:53:32+02:00 https://www.sabusinesshub.co.za/webforum/viewtopic.php?t=5764&p=7234#p7234 <![CDATA[BEE and Small Business in South Africa • Choosing Ping G20 Driver is a wise choice for you]]> Bought this a few weeks ago to upgrade from my G15. Had a Rapture and G10 prior so yes I am a Ping fan. g20 driver Have always had stiff shafts but changed (getting older) to a regular Tour shaft for my new G20. I hated the club at first as the feel was very different to my G15. A few weeks later and a few practise shots forward I will not have any other Driver in my bag right now!!!. It hits the ball so STRAIGHT - and without any effort!! ping drivers g20 My Golflogix phone software shows my average drive with this new machine at just over 5 yards longer than my G15 - 298yds average. What a club! Give it time and it will give you straight and long shots guaranteed!

Statistics: Posted by jacksmithly — Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:53 am

]]> 2010-05-01T19:01:32+02:00 https://www.sabusinesshub.co.za/webforum/viewtopic.php?t=420&p=754#p754 <![CDATA[BEE and Small Business in South Africa • Experienced BEE staff required with Linux skills]]> Statistics: Posted by olsmithy — Sat May 01, 2010 7:01 pm

]]> 2007-05-14T10:04:33+02:00 https://www.sabusinesshub.co.za/webforum/viewtopic.php?t=306&p=388#p388 <![CDATA[BEE and Small Business in South Africa • South Africa's growing small business community]]>
Ben

_____________________________________________________________
This from the Mail and Guardian on line

More South Africans are working for themselves with one in six now self-employed, economist Mike Schussler said on Wednesday. In 2002, one in seven was an entrepreneur.

"That's a huge increase. Partly it's survival, partly it's entrepreneurship. I think more and more people realise that they are not going to get rich working for someone else," he said, presenting his fifth South African Unemployment Report, which was commissioned by trade union the United Association of South Africa.

While there are about 2,1-million businesses in South Africa, only 600 000 are in the formal sector. Those self-employed in the informal sector are also "just scraping a living", said Schussler.

"The biggest challenge is how to bring people from the informal into the formal sector, so that they can not only pay tax, but also be on a more even footing, get access to finance and get their products out there," he said.

He called on the government to reduce red tape, which makes it time-consuming and expensive for businesses to register.

In line with his complaint, the number of clerical workers had increased between 2001 and 2006, along with managers and legislators. The number of workers in areas the economy needed, like plant and machinery workers, had declined.

In the past four years, the construction sector has seen the biggest growth in employment, while mining has seen a decline of 30%.

Training
He said sector education and training authorities need to spend more money on specialised skills than on general education.

About 13 000 artisans a year were being trained in the 1980s. This figure is about 3 000 at present, when between 20 000 and 50 000 are needed.

There is also a shortage of nurses, due to low salaries and a lack of training. The private sector is, however, picking up some of the slack. "These days the private sector is a lot more responsible for training. We're seeing a lot more market success and state failure."

He said despite the government's Jipsa skills-acquisition programme, it is not yet serious enough about reducing the skills shortage.

Formal-sector bosses each employ about 14 people, while their counterparts in the informal sector employ about 0,5 people.

More men are becoming self-employed in the formal sector, and more women in the informal sector.

Salaries
In 2006, the average big firm increased salaries by about 8,1% to R12 544 per month. Government employees got about 5,5% and smaller firms are estimated to have increased wages by about 7,5%. With inflation going up, Schussler expects an average 7,5% increase for 2007.

As far as workers are concerned, he said the number of black men working for someone else had increased from 35% to 40% between 2002 and 2006. All other race groups and sexes had seen a decline in the number of workers.

On education, Schussler said while 1,2-million children started grade one, only 500 000 of them got to matric. Most of these children dropped out at the end of grade 11 and the unemployment rate in this group was 36,3%, compared with the national rate of about 25%.

"Ironically, they [grade-11 drop-outs] have a higher rate of unemployment than those who didn't go any further than primary school."

About 3,7% of those with university degrees are jobless in South Africa, which Schussler said is on a par with the rest of the world.

Schussler said job growth is keeping up with the country's population growth, but that there is a "huge influx" of immigrants. He said these immigrants are better entrepreneurs than South Africans, with about one in five self-employed. -- Sapa

Statistics: Posted by BenB — Mon May 14, 2007 10:04 am

]]> 2007-05-14T09:51:47+02:00 https://www.sabusinesshub.co.za/webforum/viewtopic.php?t=305&p=387#p387 <![CDATA[BEE and Small Business in South Africa • Mbeki flies the flag for small business]]>
With many governments around the world realizing that supporting small businesses is a sure fire way of boosting their economies and eradicating unemployment problems, the SA President is demanding that big business starts to invest in the country who is filling their pockets.

Does this mean we will now start seeing banks re-think their bullying tactics? Does it mean that SMMEs will now become an option for providing products and services to larger business? I have always said that action speaks louder than words and in this case action will be most welcome.

Ben

________________________________________________________

Karima Brown reports

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki chastised business leaders in Johannesburg at the weekend during a high-powered presidential imbizo in Gauteng, demanding they shape up and "provide leadership" if the problems facing small, medium, and micro enterprises were to be properly addressed.

Mbeki, flanked by a bevy of senior cabinet ministers and provincial politicians including Gauteng premier Mbazima Shilowa and Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo, criticised business leaders for not displaying the "type of leadership" required to address challenges raised by individual business owners.

"You are called stakeholders because of the positions that you occupy," Mbeki said. "I get worried because I will be in Soweto and I know pretty well what people there will say about jobs, and one would expect that," he said.

The president was responding to complaints from big business regarding the high cost of telephony, transport and the skills shortage. Black business leaders told Mbeki they were experiencing serious problems including access to finance, training facilities and difficulties with government departments who paid late, causing severe cash-flow problems for small contractors.

Other concerns raised by business with the president included the cost of doing business in Johannesburg, the shortage and high cost of skilled staff, poor government service delivery -- primarily due to a lack of capacity -- physical infrastructure, poor delivery and support for small businesses, and the perception on the part of small and micro business who feel that broad-based black economic empowerment is too narrow.

Mbeki told the business community they "lacked leadership" from organised business to adequately address their issues. "Nafcoc has to be actively involved in solving these problems, but are they? One gets the sense that they don't exist. There is not this port of call called organised business," Mbeki said.

Joburg Business Forum member Mike Schussler said while business was "willing to work" with government, it faced serious challenges. "Many feel that telecommunications costs are too high as well as the cost of exporting and importing. The high cost of security, particularly for small and medium business, is a big strain," Schussler said.

Excessive government regulation as it related to tax and labour compliance also compounded matters for SMMEs. Small business had also been excluded from training levies, and therefore could not access the Seta system, resulting in business not being able to train artisans, he said.

Schussler proposed a set of short- and long-term solutions, which included better traffic management, that the government make it easier to import scarce skills, allow more broadband players so as to lower telecommunication costs, and allow extra empowerment credits for small business for implementing black economic empowerment.

In the longer term, government should get Seta funds to work and allow business "more of a say" in what skills it needed. He also suggested promoting a second airport, as well as better communication between business and the government.

During the weekend imbizo, Mbeki visited residents of Soweto and the inner city in Hillbrow, and visited the Gautrain construction site at Park Station and Orlando Stadium in Soweto.

The development and expansion of SMMEs is a central feature of the government's economic growth plan, Asgi-SA. The government has also identified the second economy as a key vehicle to create jobs and alleviating poverty. Gauteng is the economic powerhouse of SA and Johannesburg is seen as the financial capital of Africa.

According to the Joburg Business Forum, the city grew at 4,7% over the past decade while SA as a whole averaged 3,2%. Moreover, Johannesburg grew 47% faster than the South African economy as a whole. "Based on this historical relationship, the Joburg Business Forum concluded that the city needed to achieve a growth of at least 9% for SA to grow at 6%,"said Schussler.

Source: Business Day

Statistics: Posted by BenB — Mon May 14, 2007 9:51 am

]]> 2007-05-14T09:37:50+02:00 https://www.sabusinesshub.co.za/webforum/viewtopic.php?t=304&p=386#p386 <![CDATA[BEE and Small Business in South Africa • SA Government to start buying from SMMEs]]>
Let us know what you think,
Ben

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This report from Boyd Webb

Cleaning, IT, textile and furniture suppliers could soon get a large slice of the government's lucrative spending pie when the cabinet approves its small enterprise service delivery programme next week.

It has finalised a list of 10 products which will be bought from small and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) in an attempt to boost their fortunes and stimulate the sector, Trade and Industry minister Mandisi Mpahlwa told reporters at a briefing in Pretoria yesterday.

This targeted procurement plan would also force the state to pay its suppliers within 30 days.

Small suppliers have in the past shied away from government contracts because of its inability to settle accounts promptly.

While Mpahlwa would not release the list of products and services before it was approved by the cabinet next week, it is expected to include cleaning services, clothing and textiles, advertising, travel, IT and furniture products.

Mpahlwa also revealed that the government had started implementing its new National Export Strategy that would ultimately allow small South African exporters to take advantage of multi billion-dollar international opportunities.

The DTI's export head, Riaan Le Roux, told the Cape Argus that the policy aligned the import opportunities of a certain country with local industrial capacity and the facilitation of South Africa's diplomats in order to secure lucrative contracts abroad.

"We currently have 99 000 product categories across 242 countries and by September hope to have an Internet site that exporters can use to see what opportunities are available," he said.

He described as an example how the DTI had, through public private partnerships, managed to get small South African producers to sell their wares to the developers of the $660 billion King Abdullah Economic City being built in the United Arab Emirates.

He said exporters were also being provided with opportunities in Russia, Brazil, China, India, the Arabian Gulf, East and West Africa.

He said the government's strategy would, however, only move into top gear after the 2010 World Cup.

This was because many of the country's local resources were needed for its own multibillion-rand infrastructure development programmes.

Source: http://www.busrep.co.za

Statistics: Posted by BenB — Mon May 14, 2007 9:37 am

]]> 2007-03-30T10:16:26+02:00 https://www.sabusinesshub.co.za/webforum/viewtopic.php?t=303&p=385#p385 <![CDATA[BEE and Small Business in South Africa • Umsobomvu Youth Fund starting to show results]]>
Sue Blaine reports from JHB

THE government's youth entrepreneur promoter, the Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF), has started to encourage big business to give contracts to small ones, to help them gain points in participation in enterprise development .

This is a requirement for broad based black economic empowerment

Government has identified entrepreneurs as essential to SA's economic growth. Big business was often stumped about where to find small businesses offering the services it needed, said UYF CEO Malose Kekana in Johannesburg yesterday.

Fledgling businesses often did not have the benefit of social networks that gave their products a foot in the door, he said.

They also had to contend with nervousness among buyers about quality and they often did not have enough capital to take on opportunities to supply big business with their products.

Government created the UYF in January 2001 to promote entrepreneurs, job creation, skills development and skills transfer among South Africans, aged 18 to 35.

The UYF launched its database of small businesses to aid "matchmaking" between small and big businesses last March. After that success, the Business Opportunities Support Services (Boss) programme was being expanded.

It enables entrepre-neurs to enter their company profiles into the database and big business is able to request service, view small business offerings and correspond.

There are 400 small businesses on the database, which was launched with R10m in funds and has created business opportunities worth about R165m, Kekana said.

"If we can secure R1bn in opportunities over the next 30 months, we'll be making a difference," said UYF market linkages director Ashley du Plooy.

The UYF has bought a 26% stake in rating agency Decti, which will rate all of the businesses on the database.



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Copyright © 2007 Business Day.

Statistics: Posted by BenB — Fri Mar 30, 2007 10:16 am

]]> 2007-02-19T15:57:59+02:00 https://www.sabusinesshub.co.za/webforum/viewtopic.php?t=297&p=379#p379 <![CDATA[BEE and Small Business in South Africa • BEE: SA government comes to the party]]>
The SA government recently announced their decision to substantially increase the thresholds for exempted microenterprises from R300000 to R5m, and for qualifying small enterprises to between R5m and R35m.

It must be a huge weight of the shoulders of small firms who take on huge risks to build new firms which in turn create jobs and contribute to the countries GDP, to now be free from the burden of empowerment compliance.

Lets see if our banks will now open their eyes and more importantly their pockets to support the South Africa’s entrepreneurs.

Statistics: Posted by BenB — Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:57 pm

]]> 2007-02-12T16:27:43+02:00 https://www.sabusinesshub.co.za/webforum/viewtopic.php?t=296&p=378#p378 <![CDATA[BEE and Small Business in South Africa • South African woman more entrepreneurial than men]]>
If we look at the various factors that contribute to business start-ups, there may be a whole number of factors that may play a role hear.

1) Men in South Africa are traditionally bread winners looking of more secure employment.

2) Statistics show that men are still better educated than woman and this may mean that woman see entrepreneurship as a viable alternative considering their educational backgrounds.

3) The research shows that entrepreneurship is especially strong amongst African woman. Apart from the possible assumption that black African woman are simply more entrepreneurial than the rest of the population (which may be true or not true) it may also mean that this segment of the population may be forced to find ways of creating additional income streams for their families.

4) Leading from the point that woman are still lagging behind in the education stakes, but yet are more entrepreneurial, does this mean that there may be something lacking in the way that South Africans are educated? With so much emphasis being placed on getting the right education to find the right job, there may be no space for entrepreneurial thinking to make an impact.

Whatever the reason, it is something to be celebrated that our woman are taking the lead and making things happen.

The management writer Tom Peters have for years been saying that woman are better employees and managers within organisation. Now it seems that woman are also successfully making the transition from management to entrepreneurship.

Feedback welcome,
Ben


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Research findings as follows:

BLACK South African women are outranking their male counterparts when it comes to world entrepreneurship rankings, a new study has found.

The South African research for the World Global Entrepreneurship Monitor was conducted by the University of Cape Town‘s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Graduate School of Business.

The research found that women outnumbered male entrepreneurs in South Africa, and black women specifically were the “silent championsâ€

Statistics: Posted by BenB — Mon Feb 12, 2007 4:27 pm

]]> 2006-12-13T14:23:39+02:00 https://www.sabusinesshub.co.za/webforum/viewtopic.php?t=280&p=358#p358 <![CDATA[BEE and Small Business in South Africa • IDC boost for franchises and BEE]]>
With many small businesses struggling to live with the governments BEE strategies and in many cases taking the brunt of the risk on this, entrepreneurs in some industries will see this as a step in the right direction. Small and micro enterprise (smme) support and enticement could be seen as two of the easier ways to stimulate South Africa's economy and with the smmme sector already in trouble and lagging far behind that of other developing countries around the world, much more of this is needed.

Concerns may be raised that certain industries are receiving more funding than others and that the money seldom reach the areas where it can have the biggest effect. We would encourage a move from the IDC not only to publish details of the funding granted to certain industries, but also to publish the results and effects that such funding may be creating.

The above is in response to the article by Edward West below.

Your comments welcome,
Ben


Famous Brands, the restaurant franchiser group, has secured R25,5m from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to fund new Wimpy, Steers, Debonair's Pizza and FishAways franchised stores for black entrepreneurs.

Famous Brands chief operating officer Kevin Hedderwick said the aim was to make these brands more accessible so black franchisees could own 20% of the franchise network in the short term, up from the current 15%.

Loans from R500000-R1,5m on "favourable terms" would be to granted to approved candidates, Hedderwick said.

IDC executive vice-president Katinka Schumann-Bester said the state-owned firm viewed the facility as an intervention necessary to ease entry into the franchising sector for blacks.

The loan will be supported by a mentorship programme, managed by the group, to enhance the success of the new franchisees.

Government has identified the franchise industry as an important growth area to support its strategy of building a sustainable small business sector.

Famous Brands is the second listed restaurant franchiser group to obtain funding from the IDC in support of a black economic empowerment programmes.

Spur executive chairman Allen Ambor said in the company's recent annual report that the group had secured R30m of financing from the IDC this year to finance black franchisees.

He said many black entrepreneurs were unable to secure funding from traditional banking channels and it was proving difficult to accelerate growth in the number of black franchisees.

"Some of these franchisees could be selected from within the ranks of our employees. This could also hasten the rate at which franchise opportunities become available, thereby facilitating growth avenues for the group," said Ambor.

Hedderwick said demand for Famous Brands' franchises was still strong at about 1000 inquiries a month, but black entrepreneurs often did not have enough cash for a premium restaurant franchise brand.

He said a restaurant franchise was a "tough, unforgiving, seven-days-a-week business", but it could be lucrative for the franchisee if variables in the business such as positioning, gearing, rentals and staff costs were right.

Famous Brands' share price slipped 1,77% to close trade at R12,77 yesterday. A total of 215410 shares changed hands in 81 deals.



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Copyright © 2006 Business Day.

Statistics: Posted by BenB — Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:23 pm

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