Small businesses in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape have been given the opportunity to upscale their businesses over the next year through the Adopt-An-SME programme. The initiative is being driven by SMEs. Tax is a company that provides services including accounting, business consulting, company registrations, individual tax, mentoring, payroll, and secretarial services for SMEs.
Businesses, which are operating in sectors like cybersecurity, construction and professional services, are expected to grow substantially this year and will need help in areas of accounting, financial assessments, marketing services and public relations. SME. Tax will provide small businesses with all the accounting, business consulting, and mentoring services, and the business management company, SME Snapshot, will provide them with real-time access to their financial information.
And financial consultancy Decusatio would support them with access to finance and markets through public relations and content strategy. Decusatio content strategist Ntokozo Khumalo told Vutivi News that the Adopt-An-SME programme, which had been running since 2020, offered a holistic approach to running a small business. “Before any work is undertaken with an SME, they get put through a thorough statutory, regulatory and financial assessment,” she said. “This approach not only highlights any shortcomings the SME currently has, but it also brings to the fore any possible risks posed to the corporate that they are servicing.
“The results of the assessments are used to customise a list of ‘corrective actions, which are then worked on over the course of the next 12 months,” Khumalo said the participants underwent a selection process facilitated by SME. Tax, Decusation and SME Snapshot, who combined their expertise in taxation and accounting services, public relations, and access to markets. Decusatio CEO Marc Ashton said that the different expertise and skills brought into the programme ensured that SMEs got the help they needed, even in a time of crisis.
“Although the last two years have been turbulent due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other economic pressures, Adopt-An-SME was still able to positively contribute to the sustainable growth of the SMEs in the 2021 cohort,” he said. “We saw small businesses such as tech-enabled startup deaf touch close the year of having pitched as part of the Top 25 in the Entrepreneurship World Cup, ranking as VentureBurn’s top 5 Most Exciting SA Startups to watch in 2022, as well as nabbing a nomination in the founder of the Year Awards in the social founder of the year category.”
Deaftouch provides accessible communication solutions for and blind communities. SME Snapshot CEO Tyronne Nel said that the initiative removed the complication often associated with traditional enterprise supplier development solutions that have largely failed. “While this ecosystem is initially limited to the corporations sponsoring the chosen SMEs, this will eventually grow to become a pool of verifiable supplies that can be relied on by a multitude of businesses,” he said.
