<\/p>\n
Building a business in South Africa is an act of defiance.<\/p>\n
Load shedding, rising operating costs, fragile infrastructure and high interest rates dominate the landscape \u2013 yet entrepreneurs continue building, creating, and pushing forward.<\/p>\n
Speak to enough small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) owners, and a pattern emerges: the issues that cost them the most were not always the obvious external pressures. They were the quiet operational decisions made in the early days when everything felt urgent and nothing felt certain.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what seasoned SME founders and owners say they would do differently \u2013 and why these lessons matter now more than ever.<\/p>\n
Skip the accountant, pay the price<\/p>\n
One of the most common and expensive early mistakes SMEs make is delaying proper financial management.<\/p>\n
As Winnaz co-founder Pascal Murasira says: \u201cThe first mistake we made was thinking we could be our own accountants. We did not hire an accountant right away, and that led to mistakes in our financial system as we mixed up personal and company resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
A survey of 400 local entrepreneurs by Xero found that poor cash flow management was the costliest mistake South African SMEs made \u2013 to the tune of R90 000 per year on average. Before you hire anyone else, hire a bookkeeper.<\/p>\n
The remedy: Establish financial hygiene early: bookkeeping, invoicing discipline, reconciliations, and basic financial controls \u2013 and before you hire anyone else, hire a bookkeeper.<\/p>\n
Your \u2018systems\u2019 will eventually betray you<\/p>\n
Many SMEs start out with manual or improvised systems \u2013 and it works, until it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Reel Stories CEO Nidha Narrandes built her video content business on instinct and craft. The tech infrastructure came later \u2013 too late.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mistakes I made were not dramatic,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were quiet and cumulative. Payroll on a spreadsheet. Files on a hard drive, pay slips on my desktop. No proper backup system. No real cybersecurity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was running a 21st Century business on 20th Century habits. Every small business owner thinks these things can wait \u2013 until the day they cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Independent reporting shows that this pattern exists across South Africa: SMEs face data loss, failed backups, cyber risks, slow transfers and infrastructure gaps \u2013 all of which directly hurt revenue and customer delivery.<\/p>\n
It is a pattern Cell C Business has built its SME offering around \u2013 cloud-based solutions, reliable connectivity, and business-grade infrastructure scaled to where a business is, not where it hopes to be.<\/p>\n
As Cell C chief officer of sales, regions and customer care Chris Lazarus puts it: \u201cSMEs cannot afford downtime, not even for a moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The remedy: Cloud-based tools, business-grade connectivity, cybersecurity basics, and redundancy. These fundamentals sit at the core of Cell C Business\u2019s SME offerings.<\/p>\n
Find out more about Cell C\u2019s Cloud solutions here.<\/p>\n
Wanting a big client is not the same as being ready for one<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most common reason [for failure] is that many businesses are simply not yet market-ready,\u201d says Catherine Wijnberg, CEO of Fetola.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there is often a desire to onboard a big client, in reality the business may not be able to service that client.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wijnberg\u2019s company has supported over 500 South African SMEs. Her consistent finding? Businesses that survive are those that invest in the fundamentals \u2013 systems, processes, delivery capacity \u2013 before chasing headline wins. Ambition is not a strategy.<\/p>\n
The remedy: Build delivery capacity, operational discipline and reliable digital infrastructure before pursuing corporate accounts.<\/p>\n
Over-promise, under-deliver \u2013 and you are out<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had a lot of issues in the past with people we have worked with because people over-promise and under-deliver,\u201d says Moira Johnston, co-founder of EventRoom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest lesson has been to always do a trial run before entering a formal relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trial runs apply to suppliers, partners, and technology providers alike.<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s infrastructure constraints make dependency on unproven relationships a genuine business risk. Protect yourself contractually and operationally before you commit.<\/p>\n
The remedy: Validate suppliers, platforms and partners before locking them in.<\/p>\n
Underestimating cyberthreats<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s top SME digital nightmares have been identified as security breaches, failed backups, ransomware attacks and monitoring blackouts.<\/p>\n
Each can derail a business overnight.<\/p>\n
The remedy: Secure connectivity, encrypted networks, verified backup systems and real-time monitoring \u2013 all designed for scale-as-you-grow budgets.<\/p>\n
Low cloud readiness<\/p>\n
Studies show that many SMEs lack the awareness, preparation and skills needed to adopt cloud systems properly \u2013 contributing to poor implementation and underutilisation.<\/p>\n
The remedy: Guided migration, simple cloud tools, human support, and step-by-step readiness assessments.<\/p>\n
Trying to scale without digital infrastructure<\/p>\n
Cell C\u2019s Kantar-backed SME research reveals a stark reality: If the internet goes down, the business stops.<\/p>\n
South African SMEs depend on connectivity for sales, payments, logistics, staff coordination and customer engagement.<\/p>\n
Downtime is not a \u2018technical issue\u2019 \u2013 it is a business failure.<\/p>\n
The remedy: Always-on connectivity, cloud-ready systems, predictable costs, and human support \u2013 the pillars of Cell C Business\u2019s repositioned SME strategy.<\/p>\n
Mentorship is not soft \u2013\u00a0it is survival<\/p>\n
\u201cEntrepreneurs must learn the power of networking and the value of mentorship, as these are the things that most entrepreneurs take for granted,\u201d says AM Group founder Anda Maqanda.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I am where I am because of a business mentor who changed the way I see things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The remedy: While South Africa\u2019s formal business networks have historically been inaccessible to many entrepreneurs, today\u2019s SME ecosystem \u2013 from Seda (Small Enterprise Development Agency) incubators to Fetola\u2019s Tholoana Programme \u2013 exists to change that.<\/p>\n
The bottom line<\/p>\n
The entrepreneurs who endure are those who either paid attention to the mistakes of others and avoided them, or realised the mistakes they were making and course-corrected.<\/p>\n
They upgraded their ICT systems, hired the accountant, invested in connectivity, ran the trial \u2013 and built something resilient enough to absorb the next curveball South Africa throws at them.<\/p>\n
The SMEs that survive and scale in South Africa:<\/p>\n
\u2714 Invest in financial discipline
\u2714 Upgrade their digital infrastructure
\u2714 Adopt cloud tools with guidance
\u2714 Secure reliable connectivity
\u2714 Strengthen their cybersecurity
\u2714 Trial and test before committing
\u2714 Build readiness before chasing scale, and
\u2714 Lean into mentorship and networks.<\/p>\n
This is the foundation on which Cell C Business has rebuilt its SME proposition: reliability, simplicity, predictable spend and human support \u2013 meeting businesses exactly where they are and helping them get where they want to go.<\/p>\n
Brought to you by Cell C Business.<\/p>\n
Moneyweb does not endorse any product or service being advertised in sponsored articles on our platform.<\/p>\n
#SMEs #start<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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