A recent report from the Democratic Alliance suggesting at more needs to be done to provide business guidance and support for would be entrepreneurs and small business owners in the form of one stop shops, is great news for SABusinessHub. With a number for business hubs already in place and the current recruitment drive to find suitable hub owners in Gauteng and Kwazulu Natal, South African business hubs will soon be providing business support through their hubs across the country.

The DA's report can be seen below:

The latest data released by Statistics South Africa confirms that the Democratic Alliance’s recent policy proposals on small business development are right on the money.

Statistics South Africa’s (StatsSA) latest Survey on Employers and the Self-employed (SESE) indicates that South Africa has 1.7m non-VAT registered small businesses of which almost 97% were started without access to loans or grants. This dispels the myth that enterprise development is primarily inhibited by access to finance.

The SESE also shows that a massive 89.4% of non-VAT registered enterprises are operating without trading licences, illustrating that a large number of small business owners do not understand the growth benefits of formalising their businesses or do not have the necessary expertise to do so.

Clearly there is a great need for more readily available and comprehensive guidance to assist informal and micro-enterprise owners to formalise and / or develop their businesses – exactly what the DA proposed in its proposal for a One-Stop Shop for small business development.

From a job creation perspective, the incentive to put such a service in place is compelling. SESE data shows that of the 1.7m non-VAT registered businesses in South Africa less than 16% employed one or more employees. In addition, more than 51% of these businesses are based on wholesale and retail activities and 12.7% on manufacturing – both industries with high employment-creating potential.

Government maintains that it already has a One-Stop Shop-type structure in place in the form of its Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), but two years since its launch SEDAs roll-out has yet to be completed. In answer to a recent DA Parliamentary question on the topic, the Department of Trade and Industry failed to point out any successes achieved by SEDA in assisting small business development, despite it having received in excess of 10 000 queries over a three month period.

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka indicated that even if Government managed to achieve its growth targets, it is likely that it will fall short of its target of halving unemployment by 2014 by 2m jobs. If each of these non-VAT registered businesses managed to employee only one additional employee this shortfall would already have been reduced to a mere 300 000.

The SESE confirms that the DA proposal for a One-Stop Shop, if implemented, would make great strides to develop small businesses and to promote job creation and therefore deserves serious consideration.
http://www.moneyweb.co.za/business_today/450589.htm