How to grow your business: Have a business plan, get support and be patient

Before Covid-19, local pop–up markets were a source of income for many small and medium-sized businesses.

However, when the first hard lockdown hit, most markets closed down, and never quite managed to return and have the same impact.

However, this weekend past, the Radio786 SPAR Cape Town Ramadaan and Lifestyle Expo came back with a bang!

And the SMMEs who traded there were left smiling.

The event was held at the old Green Point Track.

The venue brought back fond memories, not only for those who participated in sports there over the years, but for their supporters as well.

Tashreeq Truebody, the station manager of Radio786, said the weekend surpassed all their expectations, and was the most well-attended expo they’ve ever had.

This was surely good news for many small businesses who have been hard-hit.

Rushni Allie, exco member of the expo, applauded the small businesses who traded at the event, saying: “The variety of the stalls and products from the community was brilliant. Our small businesses really stepped up.

“They were so professional in terms of their branding. They had personalised packaging, business profiles and business cards.”

Allie went on to say that small businesses proved themselves up to the task of trading with larger organisations and were the better off for it: “You could find a small business that trades from their home or from a flea market, now trading and networking alongside bigger organisations and corporates – and that broadens the horizons of the smaller business, as well as exposing them to new clients.”

There are quite a few entities who support the growth of small businesses.

SEDA (Small Enterprise Development Agency) is one of them.

You can go to SEDA for help to start a business or, if you already have a business, to make it stronger and more profitable.

There is a SEDA branch in each district municipality. These branches offer:

• information, advice and referrals

• tender information and advice

• import and export training

• trade information

• business assessments and business mentoring

• technical support

• market access

• business linkages

The importance and structure of a good business plan:

Every business, no matter how big or how small, must have a business plan.

Some of the most important reasons to have a business plan are:

• To establish business milestones

• To better understand your competition

• To better understand your customer

• To assess the feasibility of your venture

• To position your brand.

According to SEDA, the first thing you need to do is state clearly and specifically what your business idea is.

Very simply, you need to say what you intend doing, how you plan on doing it, when you plan to do it and why you believe you will succeed.

In the process of doing that, you need to do some research into whether your idea and your plan will really work.

Your business plan should cover four main areas:

• Your strategic focus (your “niche” or “core business”): What exactly is it that your business will do? What makes it special? What won’t your business do?

• The marketing plan: How are you going to promote your product? How are you going to price your product? How do you plan on getting your product to your market?

• The operations plan: What staff will you have and what will they do? Who will supply you with what you need? How will you manage your business?

• The financial plan: What profits and losses will you make? How much sales do you need to make to break even? How much cash do you need to cover costs each month? What is the source of your funds? How will you use your funds? If you need a loan, then what can you offer as security for that loan?

Important advice:

• Work out how big your market is (the number of people who will buy your product).

• Is the market growing or not? (Is there increasing demand for your product or is there an oversupply?)

• List all the factors about your business that will bring you success (e.g. is it in a good place, is it cheap, is it high quality?)

• Look carefully at your situation and make a list of the following:

• your strengths and weaknesses in comparison with your competitors

• all the obvious market opportunities and threats

• the advantages you have over your competitors

• advantages that your competitors have over you

• ways of using your advantages to your benefit

• how you will deal with the disadvantages you face

• what must be done, when it must be done and how it should be done.

How you can use social media and your online presence to grow your business.

The Radio786 Spar Ramadaan and Lifestyle Expo was a great platform for businesses to trade and for the community to socialise, and be entertained at this beautiful outdoor venue, which was transformed into a shopper’s paradise.

There were some challenges – especially with long queues of people trying to get in and the organisers having to adhere to Covid regulations by stopping entry a few times.

But having too many people visiting your event and supporting your vendors is a good problem to have!

Every vendor I spoke to was complimentary of the expo, and how well it was set up and advertised.

Let’s hope that there are many more awesome markets and events which can assist our SMMEs – and see them not only survive, but thrive!

Contact SEDA: 012 441 1000

Business Information Centre: 0860 103 703

[email protected]