Survey Shows SA Entrepreneurs are struggling
Although FASA’s recent survey, sponsored by Sanlam, shows that entrepreneurs with new franchise concepts grew from 843 to 865 and opening 3 181 outlets in the past year, the entrepreneurial environment has become more difficult.
Seed Academy undertook the study of more than 1,000 entrepreneurs and found that the key challenges they faced included the inability to raise funds, finding customers, wearing too many hats followed by lack of guidance, slow sales, customers paying late and the unpredictability of business conditions across the country.
Accessing funding remains the biggest concern and challenge for entrepreneurs, with most of them largely self-funding and not applying for funding because they don’t know where or how.
“We see small progress in terms of business survival rates, revenue increases and more women entrepreneurs but what we really need is for stakeholders in the ecosystem to pull together and make major trajectory changes that support all entrepreneurs from seed through to scale-up stages,” Seed Academy CEO Donna Rachelson said.
“We still don’t have the basics right: early stage funding and high impact business support throughout the entrepreneurial journey.”
To protect, lobby, promote and develop ethical franchising across all sectors in South Africa with specific focus on transformation.
