Enterprise development is crucial to helping small businesses keep working. Outside of finance, enterprise development provides important business support which provides knowledge to new and old entrepreneurs. To better understand enterprise development, we need to unpack the concept as a whole.
Enterprise development is defined as a concept which lies in investing in enterprises. It invests in knowledge and time, attracting investment, building business linkage and creating jobs to help enterprises compete in the economy.
In South Africa, enterprise development is a strategy to promote economic growth for entrepreneurs and their businesses. As a small business, robust enterprise development provides space for growth by leveraging the know-how of professionals.
In this article, we unpack what enterprise development is and which programmes are available for enterprise development.
Importance of Enterprise Development in South Africa
As explained, enterprise development means investing in enterprises to help them compete in the economy. South Africa has a growing economy which is filled with small businesses. These small businesses contribute to around 34% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provide employment to about 60% of the labour force.
These businesses continuously contribute to the economy with and without support. The importance of proper enterprise development is crucial to the growth of the country’s economic growth.
Benefits of Enterprise Development in South Africa
Some of the benefits of robust enterprise development include:
Creation of Sustainable SMEs
When an SME is sustainable, it means it is able to meet the needs of the present without taking away from its ability to perform in the future.
Job Creation
Small businesses that have proper development, can grow and create employment for many people. This can help lower poverty and provide essential skills to many people.
Promote Entrepreneurial Activity
Entrepreneurial activity is all about designing, launching and running a new business. Proper enterprise development can help new entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses. Additionally, it can promote new business development for existing business owners.
Innovation
Innovation within small businesses leads to greater profitability. With proper enterprise development, small businesses can create new products/services which help the greater community.
Additional Income
As businesses are developed, they create additional income for many people.
Community Development
Entrepreneurship development helps communities by promoting economic growth, access to goods and services and improving the overall standard of living.
Skills Development
By developing small businesses, entrepreneurs are provided with first-hand experience in business which grows their managerial skills.
These are just a few benefits of having comprehensive economic development for small businesses. Now we look at the different programmes that provide economic development to small businesses in South Africa.
Economic Development Programmes in South Africa
Under the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda), there are a number of enterprise development programmes. The programmes are designed to develop and generate export-ready small businesses that are globally competitive and able to grow within local and international markets.
The Women Enterprise Coaching Programme
This programme focuses on the development of women through achieving a specific personal and professional competence. In its purpose, the programme seeks to group diverse women to create a maximum transfer of skills, networking and experience sharing.
The programme’s objective is to develop and grow the management competencies of owners and business managers. This is done by providing participants (women-owned enterprises) with knowledge, skills and tools to grow and manage their businesses while gaining resources to facilitate business growth.
Empretec Programme
Under the Empretec programme, promising entrepreneurs are given support structures to help them build innovative and competitive SMEs. The programme also encourages the formation of business linkages among SMEs as well as transnational corporations.
The core product of the programme is its Entrepreneurship Training Workshop. Participants enter the workshop through an initial achievement motivation workshop. This encourages them to focus on their entrepreneurial roles and challenges them to critically examine their weaknesses and strengths.
The Empretec programme targets existing small businesses and entrepreneurs with viable and bankable business ideas.
Seda Supplier Development Programme
This programme aims to strengthen the performance of supplier firms by enabling them to acquire skills and the necessary capabilities to make them globally competitive. Additionally, the programme assists participants reduce the costs of supply. The goals of the programme are as follows:
- Capacitating small businesses so they have the ability to do business with corporate sector entities.
- Provide a platform for SMEs to access potential business opportunities provided by big businesses.
- Better growth and diversification through procurement.
- Facilitate localised supply chains.
- Improve technology integration.
- Improve logistics and reduce cost to supply.
- Ensure suppliers adhere to environmental regulations.
- Contribute to employee creation.
Entrepreneurship in Schools Programme
This programme was designed to help school learners gain the entrepreneurial skills needed to create and grow businesses. The programme focuses on grade 8-12 learners and aligns with the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) and is supported by the Department of Education.
Manufacturing Support Programme
This Seda programme seeks to respond to the challenges, needs, skills and capabilities of small businesses within the manufacturing sector. Additionally, it seeks to create a path to helping SMEs become more competitive.
The two-year programme’s objectives are:
- Facilitate the growth of small businesses.
- Help manufacturing businesses adopt technology-based solutions.
- Help businesses with research and development.
- Identify gaps and take businesses to the next level.
- Provide a suite of services or manufacturing support business development interventions.
- Provide market intelligence for small businesses.
- Help small businesses with product development.
- Capacity development and productivity improvement.
These programmes are just a few which are available for you. You have to find the one that best fits your enterprise development needs and apply. Don’t wait too long, apply today and ready your business for future success.
For more information on enterprise development, read our Guide to Enterprise and Supplier Development.
