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SMEs - a South African perspective on SME start up and growth

SMEs - a South African perspective on SME start up and growth

A major problem that exists in South Africa, is simply that no one knows how many SME's exist! Current estimates vary from 1.2 million to 3 million. The margin of variance is too vast to make any meaningful contribution to the debate regarding SME development in South Africa.

Legislation that forces the use of incorporated entities such as closed corporations, cooperatives and various forms of companies, when tendering for government business, has seen a massive increase in the number of legal business entities registered. This has skewed the data massively, and therefore no true assessment of the growth in the SME establishment rate can be made.

The problem is further skewed by the fact that no one tracks the establishment of sole proprietors and partnerships, and often partnerships such as law practices often make use of legal entities for the trading component of their partnership. This leads to increased duplicate numbers of businesses being counted if at all.

Previously all businesses had to be registered with their local municipality. This has largely fallen away and is longer a requirement in most towns and cities. As a result overtrading is common in many towns. Examples include IT suppliers, tyre fitment and signwriting businesses.

It is imperative that a database of SME's in South Africa be established which is accurate, so that interventions and their impact can be correctly assessed. Only once we have established a means to evaluate our interventions can we measure their success and change them if necessary to be meaningful. Like any good business, market research and intelligence is critical in our decision making.

It would also help in establishing sustainable businesses, by providing guidance to businesses to reduce overtrading.
Rob Smorfitt





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Dr. Rob Smorfitt
(Visit Dr. Rob's Website) Have an MBA and a PhD in entrepreneurship. Three key areas of ongoing research are entrepreneurship and innovation in large businesses, the impact of legislation on SMEs and SME finance. Run my own SME blog at http://sme-smb-smme.blogspot.com as well as an entrepreneurship and innovation for large businesses blog at http://innoveur.blogspot.com I have been self-employed since 1982. I have started or purchased in excess of 40 businesses since then. Most were sold again and a few were shut down because of a lack of profitability. Many were run by staff or family while I worked in full time employment in my bigger businesses. 6 books written in Entrepreneurship and Project Management educational field. Written articles for various magazines, newspapers and websites. Married with 3 children (22, 21 and 14).

Dr. Rob Smorfitt is a Platinum author on EvanCarmichael.com
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