Jeremy Lang South Africa’s current economic environment poses a real risk for small and medium enterprise (SME) owners given its stagnant growth, and it is increasingly more difficult for local businesses to sustain themselves, let alone increase profit margins. This is according to Jeremy Lang, regional general manager at Business Partners Limited (BUSINESS/PARTNERS) , who was commenting on the June 2016 Quarterly Financial Statistics (QFS) released by Statistics SA this morning. While turnover increased in all eight industries covered in the survey from R1,99 trillion in the first quarter to R2,08 trillion in the second quarter (+4.5%) – after decreasing by 5.1% in the previous quarter – Lang says that the local environment remains strained for businesses, especially SMEs. The estimates for small, medium and large enterprises in the June 2016 QFS revealed that while net profits (across all industries, and before taxation) increased quarter-on-quarter for both small (from R33,0 bi...