Don’t jump in head first, experts warn

TO ESCAPE the disheartening challenges of youth unemployment and shackles of poverty, many young South Africans are putting on their entrepreneurial hats hoping to create a better future for themselves by kick-starting their own small businesses.

But securing funds to jump start these businesses continues to be a daunting task for many.

Despite there being various initiatives by both the public and private sectors to fund small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME), the programmes are seemingly flawed and do not always cater for the needs of the people they are meant to benefit.

Zanele Matome, the founder of Welo Health – a company that provides innovative health solutions – said that the application process for SMME funding was a contributing factor towards the challenges that entrepreneurs encounter and its threshold should be lowered to make these programmes more accessible to those in need.

Lack of access to funding programmes may explain why young entrepreneurs more often than not find themselves in legal trouble after contractually binding themselves to the first investor that comes along.