Sylvester Chauke, Chief Architect at DNA Brand Architects. (Elvis Ntombela)
I will not regurgitate statistics about the doom and gloom that is facing our economy due to the rate of unemployment in our country — evidently supported by countless statistics of numbers of unemployed South Africans, and that scary figure of unemployed youth.
We see these statistics every day and at some point we need to park the depressing numbers and focus on the solutions.
Instead, as an entrepreneur who got into running my own business from a need that I saw in the market, I would like to zoom into what I believe we should focus on.
You see, being an entrepreneur is tough — but all sane people who get into doing this know that.
With that said, it is an exciting, buoyant space that is adding incredible value to the economy and to people who work within these small businesses everyday.
The thrill of waking up in the morning to open our doors and push our small businesses is one part that keeps me thrilled every day.
I have a big gripe with the fact that every time we discuss small businesses and entrepreneurship in forums, it always ends up so heavy and sad, as if we young entrepreneurs are sitting on the side of the road begging for change.
There is a very bleak picture of the state of entrepreneurship in our country hovering about.
If we focus on this too long, we will not move an inch. Entrepreneurship is not some dull place with doom galore.
It is an exciting space and all who are in it struggle every-day to make it pop, but the fact of the matter is that we are making it work as much as we can and we can do with some support.
Job creation is not a government challenge alone. It is a societal challenge.
In fact, unemployed youth will prove to be the biggest challenge facing the development of South Africa.
To spur on employment, opportunities need to be created and there is no better place to create those opportunities other than in small businesses, driven particularly by young entrepreneurs of our rainbow nation.
A concerted effort has to be made by all stakeholders in South Africa to alleviate unemployment and stimulate much needed economic development.
On behalf of entrepreneurs, this is where I believe some work has to be done:
• Entrepreneurship should be demystified. As a nation, our attitude towards entrepreneurship is not quite healthy. Entrepreneurship is not for the mad few that want to spend time outside of the office. It is in fact, a huge necessity if we want to curb unemployment — it should be sexy to be an entrepreneur. Finding solutions and creating opportunities should be encouraged in our schools, in our families and in our society. It is not a luxury set aside for the lucky few.
Entrepreneurship is not encouraged as a career in schools. There is no focus on seeking rather than creating employment. A desperate changes in needed at this foundation level.
• Expecting organisations such as the National Youth Development Agency to solve the crisis is not realistic — because they will not. The level of negativity that this brings is a waste of the time we don’t have. We should instead mobilise successful entrepreneurs in media platforms – showcase what is being done. We need to seek and shine those young entrepreneurs and small businesses in our midst that are pushing their businesses and creating employment. We need to tell their stories and inspire the nation by seeing how young people in our country are in fact, not sitting by the way side waiting for a tender.
• Our government should make entrepreneurship work through policies (especially labour policies) and systems that liberate, not stifle the entrepreneur. More information should be readily available to all young people who have even the slight interest in entrepreneurship. They should not be subject to many hours searching for information that should be readily available at a grassroots level.
• More companies big and small should jump in and support as many small businesses as they can. Whether it being in procuring services or products from small business that will grow alongside them. The impact on unemployment is massive at this level and it goes a long way in keeping small businesses open. I commend the work being done by the likes of Nedbank, Old Mutual and Wiphold in this space.
Unless more is done to actively engage and support young entrepreneurs, the job creation capacity of more than half of our population will be lost. We can’t give up. We have to aggressively do whatever it takes as government, the private sector and the society at large to keep every single small business trading. There is hope. We can win this war — one small business at a time.
This article forms part of a supplement made possible by the Mail & Guardian's advertisers. Contents and photographs were supplied and signed off by Old Mutual and Nedbank