Business veteran Bonang Mohale, author of Lift as You Rise, argues that large businesses have a direct stake in the success of small ones. Big business should be obsessed with creating new markets, not just jobs, and that means genuinely prioritising the SMEs that supply and support them.
Business cannot prosper in isolation
The core argument of Mohale’s leadership philosophy is that businesses cannot continue to prosper while surrounded by poverty. The higher an individual or company rises, the greater the responsibility to lift others along the way, an idea drawn from the African adage that gives the book its title.
Ambition and community are not opposites
A genuinely good business meets an unmet need, or meets an existing need better, cheaper, or more efficiently, and in doing so creates jobs and strengthens the community it operates in. Ambition and a community-minded approach are two sides of the same outcome, not competing priorities.
Mohale’s advice for entrepreneurs
- Just start. If you believe in an idea, the discipline is in actually beginning, not waiting for perfect conditions.
- Pace yourself early on. The first six to nine months of a new business often mean going without a full salary.
- Pay yourself consistently once you can. Set a salary the business can genuinely afford, and still save for difficult periods.
- Plan to grow beyond small. SMEs are not designed to stay small forever. Plan, from early on, to eventually compete with established players in your sector.
Frequently asked questions
Why should large corporates care about small business success?
Because large businesses depend on a healthy market of SMEs to buy from and supply, and an economy where small businesses fail ultimately shrinks the market for everyone.
Is it realistic for a new entrepreneur to go without a salary at first?
It is common in the first six to nine months of a new venture, but it should be a planned, temporary phase, not an indefinite one, with a clear point at which consistent pay resumes.
Should a small business plan to stay small deliberately?
Not according to this advice. Even a genuinely small enterprise should plan for growth into a larger, more competitive business over time, rather than treating small as a permanent ceiling.
Lift others as you build
The businesses that endure tend to be the ones that see their own growth and their community’s wellbeing as genuinely connected, not as separate goals to balance.
Further reading: Read This If You Have Ever Been Rejected for Funding | Department of Trade, Industry and Competition for official small business support information
Originally published in June 2019. Updated September 2026 to remove a since-dated partnership reference and tighten this leadership guidance from Bonang Mohale. The core philosophy remains relevant.
