Small business needs support from govt, private sector

Despite the ballooning government commitment to support poor people through grants, this is not a long-term solution to poverty in this country. What SA needs is growth in formal sector jobs, coupled with a thriving entrepreneurial sector, to enable people to stand on their own feet financially and ween them off taxpayers’ support.

Yet, the sad reality is that the very people who can help spark this alternative wealth revolution – the owners of small businesses – are repeatedly stymied by a web of unnecessary regulation and government red tape.

A recent survey by the Small Business Institute (SBI), in partnership with the Small Business Project (SBP), found that the small business sector comprises a massive 98% (by number) of the entire business community. These means that just 2%, or 200 companies, can be classified as corporates – those employing 200 or more people.

SA is a country of small businesses. Yet both government and the private sector are failing to help and stimulate these entrepreneurs, say the SBI and SBP.

The survey provides real, new and hard data. It should be required reading for both government and captains of industry.

Small business is the future of prosperity.

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