Gerrie van Biljon Economic conditions continue to strain the operating environment for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and unless the private sector and Government work more closely together to create a more conducive business environment, confidence levels amongst business owners will continue to lag. This is according to Gerrie van Biljon, Executive Director at Business Partners Limited (BUSINESS/PARTNERS), who was commenting on the company’s latest SME Index results, which reveal that business owners’ confidence levels remain depressed. The first quarter 2016 Business Partners Limited SME Index – which measures the attitudes and confidence levels of South African SME owners – revealed an average confidence level of 51% that the South African economy will be conducive for business growth in the next 12 months. This is unchanged from the previous quarter, and a decrease of 9 percentage points when compared to the first quarter of 2015.  “Following the events of the firin...

The life of an entrepreneur is different from those that are employed in a 9-to-5 job in many ways – one of which is the extra challenges and stress entrepreneurs experience with managing and being solely responsible for their own business.  This is according to Gerrie van Biljon, executive director at BUSINESS/PARTNERS , who says that despite taking such a challenging path in life, entrepreneurs continue to thrive. “This is largely because entrepreneurs see the world not as it is, but as it can be, and then go about changing it.” Van Biljon believes that the answer to their success lies in their disciplined attitude which, although it varies from entrepreneur to entrepreneur, can generally be described in the following ten rules that they live by: Believe in yourself: Entrepreneurs are focused and tend to maintain a strong belief in their ability to achieve their goals. They get out of bed in the mornings believing that they have something meaningful to achieve and a l...

LACK OF SME FINANCE KEEPS ENTREPRENEURS AT BAY Are there enough sources of finance to stimulate entrepreneurship? Gerrie van Biljon Owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) regard access to finance as a major hindrance in either starting a business or expanding an existing business. Not only is this experienced by local businesses, but also by entrepreneurs situated all over the world, with research indicating that access to finance is the main hindrance globally. The question begs why?  The limited finance available for SMEs is as a result of financiers regarding these businesses as high risk, says Gerrie van Biljon, Executive Director at Business Partners Limited (BUSINESS/PARTNERS), a risk finance company which finances and invests in SMEs. “SMEs are often perceived to not have the correct financial systems and controls in place, and have out-dated or questionable financial statements. In many cases the financial leverage is also not at acceptable levels, with...