Small and medium businesses will be the engine of SA’s growth. It’s an area of the economy that presents the biggest opportunities for growth and employment in SA. Entrepreneurship is worth considering, especially for younger citizens. 

Understandably, the thought of becoming an entrepreneur can be intimidating. To start a business, you need more than a good idea. You need a product or service to sell or supply, a space and tools to make or provide it, customers to buy or use it, marketing material to spread the word about it, and resources to pay for it all.

Where do you start? 

• Identify problems or opportunities that exist within your community.
• Put together a business plan to help articulate the need your business is trying to address - leveraging templates from sites such as the BizConnect platform.
• Register a company through the BizPortal platform to help you save time, money and tax certificates. This will help you get benefits from government facilities and funding for your business.
• Open a business account with low bank charges such as MyMoBiz account. It’s important to differentiate between your personal and business account to avoid using company income for personal use. Based on your business account activities, you will be eligible to apply for finance to help with expanding your busines later.
• Use existing templates from sites such as BizConnect to help with tracking business operations and performance to ensure you see where your company is going and problems that may arise.
• Choose the right bank because it opens your business up to other opportunities your company can benefit from such as mentorship, advisory, a dedicated support team to help with any challenges and unlock potential opportunities to grow your business.
• Create effective product or service awareness to attract customers leveraging social media, and establish an online store using Standard Bank’s SimplyBlu.

“During these tough economic times, it’s important for young people to rely on their own skills and get their own businesses off the ground,” says Naledzani Mosomane, head of banking propositions at Standard Bank. 

This article was paid for by Standard Bank.