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How to make your small business goals attainable
Small businesses and entrepreneurs have the potential to uplift entire communities through job creation and play a vital role in alleviating poverty. Starting a small business can be a daunting experience and for this reason we have outlined some initiatives that various banks offer to start-ups.
Nedbank Small Business Services
Nedbank Small Business Services addresses some of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs starting up and offers a holistic approach to the critical start-up phase. Support takes the form of a unique start-up offer for businesses and franchises younger than 24 months with a projected turnover of R7,5 million per annum. This offer consists of banking and business support which are:
- Free banking and finance
- Business registration
- Mentorship
- Additional financial assistance through Khula
- Free financial training for franchises
- Free business management seminars
Free transactional banking – a first in South Africa and still unique – includes the following most common items when taking up a minimum of R100 000 finance:
- Free unlimited cash deposits
- Free unlimited cheques from own chequebook
- Free unlimited debit orders
- Free unlimited Internet banking transactions
For the entrepreneur, this not only makes funding accessible, but also means a tangible savings on fees which improves cash flow – an imperative source of business sustenance in the start-up phase.
Nedbank’s Small Business Services also collaborates with strategic partners that are experts in their field to provide the necessary business support components says Sibongiseni Ngundze, Managing Executive of Nedbank Small Business Services.
Some of these partnerships include mentorship with Business Partners, Khula Enterprises, business registration with SwiftReg and expert hosts at the popular Free Business Management seminars.
Business Support Services offered by Nedbank
Free Business Management Seminars
One of the first of the bank’s value offerings take the form of free business management seminars that have been running successfully for the past six years.
The seminars enable Nedbank Small Business Services to give practical guidance and advice via guest speakers who are experts in their field and who understand entrepreneurs. These experts provide insights on relevant and topical matters that affect the day-to-day life of entrepreneurs and their business.
Mentorship
Furthermore, Nedbank is cognisant of the fact that in some instances, entrepreneurs require mentorship, as research has revealed that one may have a brilliant business idea and plan, but lack the necessary experience and business acumen to successfully kick-start and sustain his business. In this instance, the bank will then recommend mentorship support via its strategic partnership with Business Partners.
While entrepreneurs are receptive to the concept of mentoring, they sometimes show reluctance as they regard this as an additional business cost. The bank therefore took a decision to subsidise a portion of the mentorship arrangement to encourage business owners to take this up and enhance their business success.
Business Registration with SwiftReg
In a further demonstration of the bank’s understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and small business owners, Nedbank Small Business Services partnered with SwiftReg, which specialises in the online registration of businesses. Launched in April 2008, this service offering will take away the burden of registration from the entrepreneur to free them up to concentrate on running their business.,
Free Financial Training for Franchise Clients
The bank has continued in this vein, and introduced free financial training for new franchisees aimed at exposing the non-financial manager to the complexities of finance, using finance as a management tool and the operational impacts of financials.
Khula Finance
The private sector has been criticised for hindering access to finance to potential entrepreneurs as they lack collateral, however, Nedbank has demonstrated its commitment to providing finance through an agreement with Khula Finance, who provide financial guarantees to qualifying entrepreneurs. Nedbank was also the first bank to change the specific parameters of the agreement to enable easier access to finance in the space considered by most banks to be high risk, mainly loans of R250 000 and below.
Absa Franchising
Franchising is a viable way for entrepreneurs to establish their own businesses and can, as such, play a significant role in the development and transformation of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector.
Absa Business Bank (ABB) have been operating in the franchising sector for over 15 years and have devolved an infrastructure geared at servicing franchise clients ranging from small, medium large and corporate businesses. Relationship Executives, supported by franchising specialists, will partner entrepreneurs to advise them on franchising opportunities and help prospective franchisees to streamline their loan applications.
The team, will in addition, structure deals to suit the needs of a particular franchise industry. The bank has also developed a number of products specifically aimed at sub-sectors within the franchising industry such as retail, restaurant, automotive or fuel franchises. Market leading products include Cash Management and Payment Solutions, Merchant Services, Electronic Banking, Investments and the Business Essentials Package from Small Business.
As part of a more holistic Sector outlook, ABB not only monitors the franchise industry but the retail industry in general to develop reliable knowledge about the trends and unique issues affecting the different industries. It also serves as a way to identify opportunities and risks in these markets.
To further assist the franchise industry, ABB would like to invite franchisees who have been affected by the economic downturn to approach Absa. The aim would be to provide financial advice or to consider financial products with the view to potentially extend the term of debt to help franchisees get through the current economic crunch.
For further information about Absa’s franchise solutions, e-mail: franchise@absa.co.za or contact the Franchising Head Office on 011 350 8000.
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