Small and medium-sized enterprises Archives

3Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, South Africa News

Resilient SMEs will thrive in 2023

By Garth Rossiter Chief Risk Officer, Lulalend The past year has not held much for the SME sector to celebrate, but I expect 2023 to be a year of growth and recovery. 2022 saw the end of COVID-19-related restrictions but, at the same time, we also experienced some of the worst levels of load shedding ever. It has been a very difficult year for a sector that is widely considered to be the engine driving the SA economy. It is the resilience of SME owners that kept the doors open and the tills ringing. Higher inflation and increasing interest rates also meant that it was becoming increasingly difficult to have any kind of disposable income with which to invest or grow a small business. This year, SMEs struggled to access the lifeblood that keeps them going – cash flow. This will be a dete...

24Mar

By Alexandra FraserNo Comments

Business, Startups

Why SMME shaming leads to an investment mismatch

Recent articles on fund-raising activities in Africa paint the picture that capital is abundant and readily available. The first seven weeks of this year have seen continued high investment levels, with start-ups raising over $1 billion through 130 deals. This creates incredible optimism for many, signalling a new investment era for businesses across the African continent. While the continental boom is positive for high-growth start-ups, this does not translate into an abundance of capital for the majority of entrepreneurs in South Africa. Despite popular belief and owing to the overuse and incorrect use of the term ‘start-up’, most entrepreneurs are not building truly scalable, innovation-driven, high-growth ventures. They are building SMMEs. Although it might not be seen as sexy to bui...

30Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

SMEs of Tomorrow – Tips to Drive Growth in 2022

Employing over half the workforce, driving significant growth in the private sector, and representing some 98% of all businesses, SMEs are the lifeblood of the South African economy. Experts speculate that Digital Transformation, COVID-19 awareness, shifting supply-chain trends, and operational optimisations, are among the key areas where SMEs can drive improvements, and thrive in 2022. Tom Stuart, Chief Marketing Officer of SME services provider Lulalend, says that having already commenced some level of digitisation pre-COVID, many SMEs are now looking to complete their DT in earnest. “These businesses are implementing expanded digital marketing tools, decentralised remote work, e-commerce capabilities, cloud-based data centres, and improved cyber-security measures,” Stuart explains. H...

18Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Fintech, South Africa News

Four steps to fixing cash flow and help SMEs survive

We are all familiar with the saying in business that "cash is king" and, if that’s the case, then cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. For small or mid-size businesses, cash flow is a critical component of success. Profits are meaningless without it. The harsh reality is that SMEs who don't exercise good cash flow management may not be able to survive the current economic climate. In South Africa, the recession and pandemic have had a devastating impact on the approximately 2.5 million SMMEs accounting for 10.8 million jobs. In a recent report published by Transunion, 6.4% of formal SMEs going into bankruptcy (up 50% from last year), with 260,000 jobs lost and another 240,000 at risk. According to Trevor Gosling, CEO of SME funder, Lulalend, there are four practical ways in which...

12May

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News, Tech

The value of digital transformation for SMEs

Digital Transformation refers to the overall change of organisational activities aimed at leveraging opportunities created by digital technologies and data. This requires companies to profoundly transform their business models, infrastructure, processes and culture, in order to steer them toward finding new sources of customer value. The use of digital technologies has transformed commerce and how businesses interact with their customers. To adapt to this changing world, organisations must embrace digitisation. “For small businesses just getting started, there’s no value in setting up your business processes and transforming them later. You can futureproof your organisation from the get-go. Thinking, planning and building digitally sets you up to be agile, flexible and ready to grow,” say...

6Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Setting South Africa’s small and medium-sized enterprises Up for Success

South Africa’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent more than 98% of registered businesses, employ between 50% and 60% of the country’s workforce, and are responsible for a quarter of job growth in the private sector[i]. “It’s no wonder then that these companies are the country’s hope for economic recovery. But what is being done to ensure their success?” asks Andrew Hardie, Chief Executive Officer at Pay@ - a leading payment aggregator and provider of secure payment solutions. South African SMEs have the highest failure rate in the world[ii]. In fact, 70% to 80% of small businesses fail within five years[iii]. Studies conducted by the Universities of the Free State[iv], Limpopo[v] and Cape Town[vi] have found that a lack of business capabilities (including skills and tools)...