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/ 30 October 2009
Regulations threaten small black-owned businesses, writes Barrie Terblanche.
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/ 22 October 2009
Franchising, they say, actually grows during economic downturns because a retrenchee with a severance package is a prime recruit for the industry.
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/ 21 October 2009
What makes Hot Dog Café extraordinary is that it is one of the few — unemployed-to-entrepreneur projects that has succeeded in South Africa.
Business schools are dressing up entrepreneurial courses as a serious academic pursuit.
New data suggests entrepeneurship levels are up by 50%, but researchers are not jumping for joy, at least not yet.
It’s no Silicon Valley, but "Slaapstad" may be more awake than most South Africans assume.
Allan Gray’s mentorship programme grooms the person, not only the business
A non-profit organisation sees value in helping successful entrepeneurs rather than small, struggling firms.
An entrepreneurial breeze is wafting through the dusty corridors of academia with a new law aimed at extracting the inventions and research by South Africa’s universities for use by the country’s social and commercial entrepreneurs. But fears have been expressed that researchers may start shutting their doors to what they could perceive as a bothersome […]
Of all the cellular phone operators, MTN is the only one addressing the needs of the corporate sector, writes Barrie Terblanche.
Although Neotel as an alternative to Telkom has been welcomed, it doesn’t quite offer all the answers.
The increase of ADSL and 3G users indicates that broadband will be the future, writes Barrie Terblanche.
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/ 6 November 2008
In almost a third of all cases in South Africa’s labour tribunal system, the employer does not pitch up.
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/ 4 November 2008
Fhatuwani Mulaudzi is a humorous man. He says South Africa urgently needs a minister of public toilets.
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/ 18 September 2008
Barrie Terblanche questions whether Mark Shuttleworth’s HBD Venture Capital company is selling out
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/ 3 September 2008
The new system forces employers to place more pressure on wayward tax employees, writes Barrie Terblanche.
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/ 3 September 2008
When the new Companies Bill comes into effect, the CC will be replaced by a new category, reports Barrie Terblanche.
Does the framework for empowerment hinder the advancement of smaller businesses, asks Barrie Terblanche.
A BEE deal on a farm in the Koue Bokkeveld provides a symbol of what transformation can achieve, writes Barrie Terblanche.
Informal operators working from their garages and bakkies may see an increase in their numbers as marginal formal workshops scale down.
Countering the bureaucratic effects of BEE, enterprise development is set to unleash support and funds for small black-owned businesses.
Backup electricity can be a costly exercise, writes Barrie Terblanche
Success is paramount for small businesses, but so are employees, reports Barrie Terblanche.
By far the most interesting service that banks recently introduced to their businessowner clients is an online accounting package, introduced by FNB.
That Bruce Lyle and his built-from-scratch fertiliser business, Nutri-Flo, has survived its nine-year fight against Sasol with the competition authorities so far is remarkable.
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/ 13 February 2008
BEE verification agencies seem to be gaining the upper hand in the long-raging and confusing debate over whether to allow self-assessment by businesses of their own BEE scores. According to a trade and industry department guideline, issued in October, self-assessed scorecards will not be recognised.
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/ 28 January 2008
If you can buy insurance against something as inevitable as your own death, why not against that other great certainty, taxes? A small company, Qdos Consulting, recently received a licence to sell what it calls "revenue enquiry insurance" in South Africa. For as little as R220 a year, individual taxpayers can cover themselves against a tax audit of their books by the South African Revenue Service.
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/ 18 December 2007
Rather like a traffic fine — if you ignore it chances are that you’ll get away with it — employers are increasingly ignoring the orders of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), the country’s labour tribunal. CCMA chief executive Nerine Kahn believes that the huge increase in CCMA awards being ignored by employers is because of a realisation that they can drag out the process for such a long time.
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/ 7 December 2007
An aggrieved husband once referred his dispute with his wife to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), asking it to grant a divorce. The story, part of CCMA lore, says something about the reach of the employment tribunal into the national psyche. The latest Tokiso Dispute Settlement review reveals interesting aspects of that psyche, writes Barrie Terblanche.
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/ 5 December 2007
A profound sense of disempowerment among emerging farmers has come to light following FNB’s announcement of a R300million deal with United States development agency USAid. The deal will see the agency guaranteeing half the loans the bank extends to black farmers, writes Barrie Terblanche.
The CBD of Athlone, Cape Town, has become the first previously disadvantaged area in South Africa to be declared a City Improvement District (CID), a concept that has worked wonders in turning around parts of the CBDs of Cape Town and Johannesburg. But can it work in smaller areas, driven by local owner-managers, as opposed to large corporations?
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/ 20 September 2007
It’s been extremely busy at the Sandton headquarters of the Blue Label Investments this week, which says a lot. The company, which has ballooned into a R12-billion-a-year juggernaut with 36 subsidiaries in the space of six years must be frantically busy at the quietest of times. The extra frenzy revolves around a bid to list on the main board of the JSE in November.