Port Elizabeth – The Hope Factory staff and entrepreneurs hosted key stakeholders, clients and strategic partners at their Hope Day breakfast event on 11 August 2017.
It was a morning of celebrating the impact of entrepreneurial development within the B-BBEE framework through collaborative partnerships with stakeholders. Andre Le Grange, New Business Development Manager for the Department of Trade and Industry, Eastern Cape Regional Office, unpacked B-BBEE. He says “a core objective of the DTI is to drive localization in the economy, by supporting local businesses to access markets”.
Says CEO of The Hope Factory, Annie McWalter: “Through the effective implementation of Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) as well as Socio-Economic Development (SED) we ensure impactful entrepreneurial development, while providing added value for our clients through our customised programmes tailored to our clients overall company strategies.”
In addition, collaborative partnerships with Industry experts such as Andre Vlok from Crossroads Business Consultants provide a value added service to our entrepreneurs. Andre is currently mentoring entrepreneur Mosa Dikoba, owner of Citrus Green Solutions. Andre has offered his skills and experience to Mosa through The Hope Factory, pro bono.
To measure the impact of entrepreneurial development interventions, The Hope Factory evaluates both leadership and business growth for the SED and ESD Programmes. The growth success of the ESD entrepreneurs, is measured according to growth in job creation, increase in turnover and increase in margins. For instance, Mosa has created 23 new jobs because of business expansion through new corporate clients during the Financial Year period 2016/2017. Mosa was one of the four entrepreneurs who participated in the panel discussion at the Hope Day breakfast, together with Nomkhita Kwinana, owner of Zingce Environmental Services. Nomkhita highlighted that personal development is crucial to business growth as they are interdependent. “The Hope Factory taught me that to succeed in business you need to be resilient”. Through the financial bootcamp sessions, she has now learned how to understand and interpret her financials in order to make better business decisions; and in comparison to Quarter 2 year on year her business has grown with 95%.
There however continues to be growing levels of unemployment in South Africa and a recent article in The Herald indicated that Nelson Mandela Bay region has experienced the greatest increase in unemployment by 4.3% in the second quarter, reaching a high of 34.4% to date (Labour Force Survey). With certain sectors being hit with mass retrenchments due to a contracting economy, there is now even a greater need to foster entrepreneurship and small business development as a vehicle for increased job creation.
McWalter says “Business mentorship is the core focus of our Programmes together with three main areas of development: firstly, personal and leadership development, secondly business skills mastery and thirdly the area of financial excellence. Our vision at The Hope Factory is to play an active role in economic transformation in South Africa through advancing the sustainable growth of entrepreneurial Black businesses. This is what we remain focused on.”
The Hope Factory is part of the South African Institute of Chartered Account’s (SAICA’s) Nation Building division, and contributes to its strategic intent to provide Sustainable economic growth through SMME support. To this effect, Christiaan Vorster, SAICA Regional Executive says SAICA is an organisation that exists for public interest and this is why we support The Hope Factory to develop entrepreneurs.
The Hope Factory would like to thank SANLAM and Radisson Blu Hotel for their sponsorship towards this event. “Thank you for coming alongside us and ensuring a successful Hope Day 2017. We appreciate your willingness to support us”, says Jill Johnson, Senior Branch Executive at The Hope Factory. She says “we have a shared belief (a collective efficacy), to transform our economy through entrepreneurship. It is about impact, the tangible and intangible, none of which we can achieve without the collective efforts of our strategic partners and clients”.
Alan Straton
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