While small businesses are the backbone of South Africa’s economy, driving growth, job creation, and community development, they face numerous challenges, but further learning and skills development through specialised courses can provide the necessary tools to navigate these complexities.
Small, medium, and micro-enterprises create jobs at a local level, which is vital for communities where employment opportunities may be scarce. By hiring locally, they help to circulate money within the community, leading to improved living standards and economic stability.
Recent research by the University of the Western Cape shows that globally 60 to 70% of jobs are found in SMMEs, but in South Africa this figure is just more than 28% despite more than 95% of businesses in South Africa being SMMEs.
Equally concerning, South Africa has a higher failure rate of SMMEs than elsewhere in the world (70% to 80% of our small businesses fail within five years). In previously disadvantaged communities, only 1% of businesses progress from employing less than five people to having staff of 10 or more.
A University of Stellenbosch Business School study found there are multiple reasons for South Africa’s high SMME failure rates, including a lack of proper management capacity and training, a lack of proper financial management skills, a lack of access to sustainable financial assistance, an inadequate understanding of the industry in which the business operates, and a lack of entrepreneurial networks to share resources and information.
To overcome these challenges, small businesses need support in various forms, including better access to finance, improved infrastructure, and more straightforward regulatory processes. However, one of the most impactful solutions is further learning and skills development.
Moonstone Business School of Excellence (MBSE) offers a range of courses tailored for small business owners, providing the knowledge and tools needed to navigate the complexities of running a business.
Some of MBSE’s courses include:
Time Management and Personal Productivity Skills
CPD: 4; R488
This course provides sound principles that can be applied to ensure that the correct priority is given to tasks being completed, and that time is used efficiently to produce the required outputs, at the required standard.
Effective communication skills
CPD: 1; R122
This course focuses on communication within the organisation which will assist both managers and employees to communicate effectively.
Manage your stress effectively
CPD: 1.5; R183
This course seeks to assist consultants in developing their capacity to manage their time effectively while increasing their productivity.
CPD: 3; R366
This course has four units. The first highlights the importance of cyber leadership skills due to rising cyber-attacks. The second covers cyber strategy and policy for protecting digital assets. The third focuses on building a strong cybersecurity culture within organisations. The final unit discusses incident response and recovery protocols and explores future cybersecurity trends to help participants stay ahead of evolving threats.
CPD: 1.5; R183
This course is designed to provide you with a better understanding and importance of business continuity and disaster recovery plans, as well as succession planning and the need to be proactive. It will also provide you with the tools and skills to mitigate business continuity risk.
Flexible e-learning options
MBSE’s CPD courses stand out for their accessibility, offering flexible e-learning options that can be completed on a computer, tablet, or smartphone, anytime and anywhere.
Other features are:
- access to user-friendly, printable training material that is broken up into smaller units, supplemented with relevant multimedia content;
- access to MBSE’s helpdesk – queries are answered promptly; and
- regular self-assessment to monitor progress.
Students can access and print their certificate once they have completed all the course activities and passed (at least 60%) the assessments.
Click here to sign up for an MBSE CPD course.
