Support small businesses
BRYANSTON - The National Small Business Chamber invited representatives from companies and the media to the present of the 2014 Small Business Survey results at the Forum in Bryanston on 10 October.
The National Small Business Chamber is an initiative that recognises the importance of small businesses and independent entrepreneurship, and attempts to support the growth of these small businesses through the establishment of networks and sufficient training.
The event hosted a number of representatives from national partners such as MTN, Vodacom, Media24 and Neotel, and provided them with the initiative’s findings regarding the small business trends.
Llewellyn Ramsagar of MTN Business said receiving the information presented will not only help big companies understand the needs of small business owners, but will also help them in accurately and efficiently helping these entrepreneurs in growing their brands.
Approximately 17 500 business owners answered the survey handed out by the initiative. Founder of the National Small Business Chamber Mike Anderson said, “The main reason behind the presentation of these results is to let our partners and the media know what needs to be done so we can create that extra edge in helping small businesses get ahead.”
The results of the survey revealed the following:
* 42% of the surveyed small businesses are based in Gauteng, 29% in Western Cape, 14% in KwaZulu Natal, 6 % in Eastern Cape and 9% are based in various other locations in South Africa.
* 17% of small businesses operate in the business services industry.
* 40% of all the surveyed businesses employed two to five people, 30% employed six to 10 people and 20% employed only one person.
* The three biggest obstacles holding small businesses back from growing are Lack of funding (80%), competition from large businesses (46%) and poor sales (36%).
* The biggest mistake made by small businesses is failing to market one’s business.
* 49% of the small businesses surveyed said that if they had to suddenly receive R 100 000 for their business they would spend it on marketing.
* The three biggest areas small business owners believe they require training in are sales and marketing (75%), business and strategic planning (73%) and financial management (51%).
* The three most important areas small businesses believed the NSBC and partners should focus more on to assist them to succeed is sales and marketing (70%), business to business networking (64%) and access to finance (57%).
