Why We Started

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Although “small business development” has become a “buzzword” in South Africa and despite the fact that it is hoped that small business will save the economy and wipe out poverty amongst the masses, not much of this promise has been realised.

 

Enterprise and Supplier Development is a key component in building a stronger South Africa. Around the world small businesses are a major component of the economy. In developed countries, small businesses contribute up to 60% to GDP. In South Africa this figure is only 35%. It is well known that a country with a strong small business sector has the following characteristics:

 

• Strong democracy

• Low unemployment

• Low crime statistics

 

These are the characteristics that we want within our own country.

 

Many entrepreneurs struggle to take their business from a survivalist or micro-level to the next phase due to: 

 

• Lack of access to finance or investment capital 

• Exorbitant interest rate charges and high administration fees

• Insufficient collateral 

• Poor education and little entrepreneurial training 

• Insufficient experience 

 

Entrepreneurial support in South Africa is provided by government, some financial institutions and social development programmes. Unfortunately, the administrators of these programmes have little understanding of the characteristics and requirements of entrepreneurs. The result is that the support is often misdirected, time consuming and subject to compliance “red tape”.

 

Our Approach

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Smart Opportunities has worked with more numerous entrepreneurs and has also worked closely with all the strategic stakeholders of small business development, predominantly government bodies and the finance lending institutions.We have spent numerous years studying the solutions for increasing the success rate of SME’s. Our experience has reinforced key principles that we focus on: 

• Training - entrepreneurship is not taught within the school environment and our experience has highlighted that entrepreneurs are not adequately prepared for entrepreneurship. We believe in the philosophy that entrepreneurs are not born, it is a taught skill. 

• Money alone is not the solution - there are many examples of where entrepreneurs have received adequate funding yet the business failed.  

• Mentorship -this is a science that is not well understood by most organisations, yet it is the key to success for all small businesses.