Non-profit organisation Shanduka Black Umbrellas was formed in February 2009 after the Shanduka Foundation adopted the Black Umbrellas model.
Entrepreneurs Charles Maisel and Mark Frankel established the model in Cape Town in 2005 to provide support to other entrepreneurs who wished to create new businesses or develop existing ones.
When Shanduka adopted the model in 2009, it wanted to grow the project and replicate it in different provinces.
Today, the organisation supports emerging black-owned businesses through enterprise development.
It works with partners across the public and private sectors to address the low levels of entrepreneurship and high failure rate of black-owned small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs).
This failure rate is reflected in the 2012 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, which found that black South Africans still have the highest failure rate of start-up businesses and the lowest rate of established business activity of all population groups.
Shanduka Black Umbrellas provides assistance to entrepreneurs by providing them with business facilities, services and support, and access to experts and mentors who can assist them with business practice.
Currently its incubation programme has more than 100 small businesses spread across Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, and Mooinooi in the North West province.
The organisation has supported more than 300 businesses with a combined turnover of R30-million and an average employment ratio of three people for every business.
“We have to continue to awaken the potential of our people because there is a pressing need for engaging on the critical issues occupying business and society,” says Yvonne Themba, director at the Shanduka Group and chairperson of the Black Umbrellas.
Reflecting this, the overall long-term objective of the organisation is to open 10 incubators in the country and support an average of 50 clients per incubator.
Ultimately, the programme aims to have at least half its clients become sustainable within three years.
The Black Umbrellas defines a sustainable business as employing at least four people on a full-time basis and generating sufficient cash to pay the business owners and employees a reasonable salary.
It should also show net positive growth in sales over a three-year period and have a positive net asset value.
Criteria for selection to the programme are based on national and international research about what factors impact on the success of small business start-ups.
The organisation also has a performance management dashboard for its clients to see how they are performing, compared to their initial business plan.
Says Themba: “Shanduka Black Umbrellas is helping to enable effective, focused and sustainable growth in the entrepreneurship space in South Africa.”
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