SAICA introduces affordable quality back-office support services

The South African Institite of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) have introduced a programme called Enterprisation. Take note, this programme is different and provides support for provides SMEs with quality back-office support services that a small business owner would otherwise not be able to afford. These services include accounting, bookkeeping, taxation, business finance consulting, and company secretarial and registration. Go check out the site for more information by clicking here.

The SAICA statement is included below:

To reach the NDP’s entrepreneurship goals, we need to make the numbers count  
One of the major goals of the National Development Plan (NDP) is to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality in South Africa by 2030.
In order to do this, the NDP recognises entrepreneurs as national assets who are essential for creating more wealth, more employment opportunities and greater prosperity for our nation. If the NDP performs the way the National Planning Commission (NPC) envisions, 90% of jobs created will be in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector come 2030.
Yet, South Africa’s inherent economical structural inequality will make reaching this goal more difficult than many may think.
While it is true that thousands of new businesses start up every year – some of which do grow into medium enterprises that employ more than a handful of people – it is also true that only one in five businesses survives longer than 18 months.
Chief among the reasons for this is that many business owners simply do not have the financial background they need to handle the financial aspects of their SME. Without this knowledge, making their business both profitable and sustainable is almost impossible.
Enterprisation helps start-ups reach financial sustainability
In 2013, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) recognised the role it could play in helping SMEs conquer the financial landscape.
To this end, it established an enterprise development and SME support hub called Enterprisation which, together with a unique graduate training programme, provides SMEs with quality back-office support services that a small business owner would otherwise not be able to afford. These services include accounting, bookkeeping, taxation, business finance consulting, and company secretarial and registration.
In providing this support, Enterprisation:

• alleviates the pressure business owners experience if they do not have access to accurate and well-maintained monthly financial records;
• contributes to the business’ overall going-concern through good business forecasting and budgeting;
• ensures that business owners are in possession of accurate, up-to-date and complete financial records when applying to credit providers for funding; and
• ensures that business owners understand the importance and benefits of doing timely tax submissions.

Businesses that are assisted in this manner remain accountable for the day-to-day financial operations of their business and, with the support of Enterprisation, these SMEs can subsequently grow into sustainable businesses that create jobs for others.
Job creation
In addition to SME support, Enterprisation also provides workplace readiness training and skills development to unemployed black accounting graduates and creates employment opportunities for these skilled graduates within the SME sector.
Thanks to the private-public partnerships that make it possible to do this work, the Enterprisation hub has, to date, successfully:

• supported 121 SMEs in five of SA’s nine provinces;
• worked with nine SME funds and incubators; and
• trained 270 graduates through the Guarantee Trust training programme – an initiative that sees 95% of graduates placed in positions of employment upon leaving the programme.

Future initiatives include an exciting project with Old Mutual’s Masisizane Fund where the Enterprisation team will assist five agribusiness co-ops in the Eastern Cape as well as a JP Morgan Grant project that will support 100 new SMEs and train 50 new accounting graduates over the next 18 months.
Enterprisation’s goal is to support the NDP by developing entrepreneurs and professionals through skills development that creates sustainable enterprises and employment opportunities. Partnering with Enterprisation also means you optimise your B-BBEE scorecard, while helping to alleviate poverty in South Africa