Karabo – Page 3

Vector illustration of a student wearing toga climbing stairs made from books

3 sustainable ways in which businesses can assist school leavers prepare for the work environment

This has probably been a dialogue for many years. With the unemployment statistics in South Africa hiking up so much, we are yet to have this chat again. We hope this blog sheds some light on business owners, even small business owners – just how they can help support school leavers as they prepare for the work environment.

There’s a gap we need to bridge between students graduating – finding work. We have so many graduates yet no opportunities. Could it be that they are not workplace ready? Is it a skill problem? Are schools not teaching the skills that are needed in the real world? Are some skills useless in this ever-changing world of technology? So many questions. But these questions need answers if we want to grow as a country. Businesses will not hire a person that won’t increase productivity or help grow the business in any way.

South Africa has graduate unemployment of 12.5% – 22.4 percentage points lower than the national official unemployment rate.

Source: BusinessTech

High school is when learners start thinking about life after school as they also apply to tertiary institutions. Choosing a course can also be tricky, technology is advancing every day – making some skills less needed by humans, we live in an automated world. Things like basic admin and customer inquiries can be taken care of by a robot. In as much as businesses might discriminate against school leavers with no required workplace skills, businesses are also responsible for equipping those school leavers with the skills that they might look for.

..moving right along, let’s look at a few practical ways in which businesses can intervene.

3 sustainable ways in which businesses can assist school leavers prepare for the work environment

(1) Job shadowing programs for teens – this has been around for quite some time. This is where businesses use the art of apprenticeship to show the students new itineraries for jobs. This is essentially done during spring break, sometimes even on weekends.

The great thing about Job Shadowing is that learners can start while they are young – this is a time where they are getting prepared for life after school and still trying to figure things out in terms of their interests, capabilities, and so on. At this time, test, break and make. There’s still have time to think about passions and plan out what they want to do for the rest of their lives.

(2) Introducing programs that will help the teachers and students to understand what the companies need. This needs both the school and the business to work closely in order to find time and resources to make this kind of program succeed. This is what we touched on briefly in our introduction. It’s inevitable that times are changing, and therefore new skills are needed. 10 years ago, people didn’t make money off social media management, in fact, the career didn’t exist. In today’s time, people make 6 figures from it – it’s a career, and brands/businesses employ them every other day. Perhaps the next point can be an action step towards achieving this:

(3) They can speak at school student assemblies and advise employment opportunities and offer them the tools needed for a specific job – partner with local businesses to see what skills are in high demand and short supply. Some schools do have career days where learners dress up as their future selves working in their dream jobs, while other schools bring in professionals/experts to talk to the learners about career choices. This should be an annual thing in schools, especially for Grade 10’s or even Grade 9 when they are still making a choice about which subject stream to choose. They can create training programs to give not only graduates but also high school learners to equip them with the skills in those jobs with a path to a job at those companies.

Business Structures | 2022

Firstly, there’s a difference between a business structure and an organizational structure, don’t confuse the two. The distinction is that an organizational structure defines how activities such as task allocation, coordination, and supervision are directed toward the achievement of organizational aims… while a business structure refers to how a company is organized, in regard to its legal status. This influences the day-to-day operations of a business.

When we talk of taxes, this is probably the most important decision you have to make. The most common forms of business are sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, and S corporation… with limited liability company (LLC) and the limited liability partnership (LLP) being the most recent development to these forms of business. Each comes with a tax consequence, so choose wisely. It should match your business’s needs too.

Sole proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is when there is a single founder who owns and runs the business. It’s worth noting that in this form of business entity, the business is not separate from the owner.

You own and have 100% control over your business and you are entitled to all profits, however, the risk is that if your business falls into debt, your assets will be seized to pay for business debt, and you are personally liable for any obligations.

If you decide to start your business as a sole proprietorship but later decide to take on partners, you can reorganize as a partnership or other entity. Be sure to notify SARS.

Partnership

This is established when 2 or more co-owners run a business together. Partners invest money, skills, and time into making the business successful. This means that you will have more capital to kick-start the business, more skills, and expertise, and you get to share the workload.

The upside of a partnership is that you share control of the business – with which sometimes you might have different views, and dealing with people is not always seamless. Another important thing to note is that everyone is liable for debts whether they were caused by other partners or not.

Pty Ltd

A Pty Ltd (proprietary limited company) is a private company and is treated as a separate legal entity. Even if you launch your business single-handedly, this type of business is registered as a separate legal entity. The owners of this kind of business are known as shareholders.

Because the business is a separate entity, it continues to run smoothly even if you sell your shares or take on partners. Additionally, you/the shareholders are not liable for company debts.

The limitation is that you can’t offer shares to the public or list the business on a stock exchange, as this is a private company. You can’t even go to meetings and make decisions alone, two shareholders must be at a meeting… except when the company only has one shareholder.

Public Company (Corporation)

A public company—also called a publicly-traded company—is a corporation whose shareholders have a claim to part of the company’s assets and profits. This kind of company trades its stock on at least one stock exchange. The daily trading of the public company’s stock determines the value of the whole business.

A Publicly traded company is different from a Pty Ltd in that shareholders can be anyone who purchases stock. With anyone being an equity owner of the business, this offers you more capital to work with, and the risk is spread out amongst the various shareholders. The more shareholders, the less risk everyone holds.

It’s important to remember though, you will need to reveal some of your documents and annual accounts published for inspection to the public. This doesn’t enable you to guard your secrets effectively. And since there are more shareholders and leaders of the company, making decisions can take longer.

Franchise

A franchise is a licensed business to a third party by the owner of a business. This gives anyone the right to operate the business or distribute goods and/or services using the business’s name and systems at a fee.

With this type of business, you can capitalize on the franchise’s successful track record and a positive reputation. On top of that, franchises have training programs designed to optimize how you run the business and bring you up to speed quickly, plus operational support.

However, you will have to follow the rules, regulations, system operations, and directives of the franchise. It’s also worth noting that the cost of becoming a franchisee is high, and you are liable to pay royalties to the franchise for the use of their name and systems.

Choosing a business structure

The type of business structure will depend on the type of business and its needs. You can still switch between types as your business grows.

You can start as a Sole Proprietor and eventually grow into a Pty Ltd or public company. Tell us in the comment – what type of business are you running or thinking of venting into?

4 Business Financing Options In South Africa | 2022

Although there are various ways or rather businesses that do not need financial assistance to launch/kick-off (which the majority of established businesses in South Africa did not need), some businesses cannot be launched nor can they survive without start-up capital. In this blog, we will be talking about substantial sources of financial aid and opportunities in South Africa.

Government grant funding

This is the most popular type of funding, as it does not need to be repaid. It’s worth noting though, the application process is pretty intense. What can help enhance your chances of securing funding is if you show how your business will improve the lives of others through employment, solving a need, or contributing to economic growth.

Some well-known programs you can check out:

National Youth Development Agency (NYDA)

Youth Pipeline Development Programme

Black Industrialists Scheme (BIS)

Technology Innovation Agency (TIA)

Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA)

This type of funding is best suited for black-owned, youth-owned, and female-owned businesses.

Equity funding

This is where the investor takes an ownership percentage of the business in exchange for funding. There are no monthly interest repayments whatsoever. However, this works best when you want to expand. It is not impossible to get it when you are just a start-up, although it is more challenging when you have no track record of sales whatsoever. Sometimes private equity funders are more interested in growing their investments.

With Equity Funding, investments are paid back in two ways:

· Paying dividends when the business makes money. (percentage of profits to be outlined in agreement contract).

· Sale of shares. Investors eventually ‘exit’ the business. The goal of every investor is to make more from their shares than they initially paid for them.

This is basically a partnership. To find these kinds of people, either approach people with common goals/mindset or a business-minded person you know might be interested. To win this kind of proposal, it’s important to make sure they see the value and ROI.

Venture capital funding

Unlike personal equity funders, venture capitalists actually fund start-ups and mainly focus on making money from your business. This means that they are likely to invest exclusively in businesses that can provide good returns on their investment.

Be careful with venture capital though, it can be very expensive funding, especially in a case where your business is still in the start-up phase with a low valuation – you may end up giving a high percentage of ownership away in exchange for funding.

Here is a list of 2 prominent venture capitalists:

AngelHub Ventures

Edge Growth

Personal debt finance

This is the use of personal means such as credit cards, home loans, or even your pension fund, to fund your business. The nice thing about this option is that you have full control of your money and business, the downside to it is that your business failure will be a big blow to your personal finances.

Every type of financing has its downsides, do thorough research before going with any option. Find out what they stand for and what they are trying to achieve. As mentioned, it’s also important to make sure you have a shared values and vision. Let us know in the comments how you raised capital to start your business.

How to harness liabilities to generate money | 2022

We like to start our teachings with the basics, so let’s get to understand what liabilities are. Liabilities are essentially what you owe other parties. Unlike assets, liabilities take money out of the pocket!

Examples of liabilities are:

Bank debt
Mortgage debt
Money owed to suppliers (accounts payable)
Wages owed
Taxes owed

Liabilities are known to decrease a company’s value and equity. But in this blog, we’re going to look at things with a different eye. Debt is a word that many people are afraid of. We’ve also seen some shows and all types of reads specifically teaching people to get out of debt. Although, we don’t believe debt can only be seen as a negative measure. Let’s show you how…

You really need to be strategic about it and make sure your potential gains are high. The general rule of thumb here is to make sure your gains are much more than your debt.

Have you ever heard anyone say “the rich use credit to make money? It’s actually very true. Take the property business for instance: agents may take up a loan to buy property in a good area, either renovate it and sell it, or rent it out. Either way, they get to make good gains. Let’s take a look at some other examples you can implement in your business:

Assets financing – ideal for business owners looking for funding specifically to purchase physical equipment.

If you are looking at expanding your offerings or growing your business by getting better production equipment etc, this could be a good investment for your business.

Commercial real estate loans – best for business owners looking to finance purchasing new or existing commercial property or renovating commercial space

Do a good research about the area you are thinking of locating your business, considering the demographics, activities in the area, and things as such. Also, search about the property value. Should you think of relocating your business, you will at least make a good profit from that

Microloans – ideal for new or established businesses looking for a small amount of capital. For established businesses, this money can be thrown in things like marketing campaigns and ADS. Things like data mining and interpretation can help you make better decisions in these instances, ensuring that you take a calculated risk with the loan.

Five tips to help you manage your debt well;

Pay the amount due, or more, on time – when it is due.
Know what admin fees and other charges apply, and when they must be paid.
Know the interest rate you are charged, as well as if and when it can change.
Make sure you can afford the repayments if interest rates rise.
Talk to your creditors if you run into financial difficulty.

The word we’re leaving you with is, debt requires you to be disciplined. If you miss payments or pay later than the agreed time, you might face penalties or other obligations.

How the tax system works in South Africa | 2022

With everything, you first have to understand the most basic things. Tax is simply a compulsory contribution to state revenue that every South African working citizen and business must pay. Non-South African residents are taxed on South African-sourced income. The majority of the state’s income is derived from income tax (personal and company tax).

Every year, the Minister of Finance presents the Budget, which outlines the total government expenditure for the following financial year and the ways in which this expenditure will be financed. Which we recently had on the 23rd of February 2022. See below:

This tax money pays for public goods and services, but it is also key in the social contract between citizens and the economy. Paying taxes fosters economic growth and development.

Understanding taxes: types, filing for returns, refunds from SARS:

There are many different types of taxes. Just to mention a few, some include:

Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
Personal Income Tax
Provisional Tax
Capital Gains Tax
Value Added Tax

An example:

Ordinary taxpayers are the people who earn a salary from an employer. The employer deducts Pay As You Earn (PAYE) from their salary monthly and pays that to SARS on their behalf. Here’s an example of how Net Income will look like after taxes:

Filing for tax returns

Income tax returns must be requested by registered taxpayers every year. The year of assessment for individuals covers 12 months, beginning on 1 March and ending on the final day of February the following year. Tax returns must be submitted to SARS on the date given, please note that SARS tax returns and CIPC tax returns are two different things and must be filed separately to both organizations respectively.

Companies are required to submit an income tax return within 12 months from the date on which their financial year ends. People whose income comes from sources other than a wage – such as a trade, profession or investments and companies – are required to submit two provisional tax returns and where applicable make two provisional tax payments during the course of the tax year and may opt for a third “topping-up” payment six months after the end of the tax year. – Source: SARS.

You can submit tax returns yourself, or hire a certified and registered tax practitioner to file your returns on your behalf. Here are some things to consider when picking the best accountant/tax personnel for your business

As per Tax Administration Act no. 28 of 2011, every person who provides advice to another with respect to the application of tax principles or assists with any tax matters for a fee must:

Be registered with a Recognized Controlling Body that’s registered with SARS.

Be qualified.

Undergo examination to evaluate their ability to competently perform functions of a tax practitioner

Engage in continuing professional development.

Accase Solutions, for instance, is registered with the IAC, Institute of Accounting and Commerce as a Certified Tax Practitioner since the registration of Accase Solutions, practicing under practitioner number PR0100503.

Why SARS issues refunds:

If for instance, you take unpaid leave at work, the payroll administrator has to adjust your tax therein. If the adjustment is not made, it means that your company deducted more tax as it was based on a wrong annual income. In this case, SARS is liable to give you a refund.

The whole point of filing for tax returns is for SARS to determine all your taxes, and if you have paid, they conclude on the right amount. If you have overpaid them, they will definitely give you your money back. Understand that, you only get a refund IF you have overpaid because you filed for returns.

If you want a breakdown/in-depth understanding of different types of taxes, please refer to this blog: https://accasesolutions.co.za/2021/03/29/important-things-to-know-about-tax-in-south-africa/

How to build a team | Small Business Edition

Behind every successful business or brand, is a great team! No matter the company size, this is necessary for growth. A team is there to help businesses grow to reach their endeavours, scale, and prosper in such a way that it would be impossible for one person to achieve. A great team also contains members with complementary skills sets.

For a business to achieve this, you need to start with hiring the right people. The “right people” are the people whose motivations are aligned with the company’s vision, determined and driven.

Sometimes if not often, a company’s staff workers can make or break the businesses’ name, thus killing a business’s growth; it’s in the way they interact/engage with customers, their productivity/ability to produce results, and so on. For this reason, a strong team is a MUST!

Behind every successful team is a good leader. Let’s help you crack this in 5 ways:

Establish expectations from the onset:

New members in every team come in “blank” (for lack of a better word), they are open to company culture, working systems and obviously, open to work as per job description. Take advantage of this. This is your opportunity as a leader to set some ground rules, and let them know of your expectations; from sales goals, 5 year plan, to the kind of team you’re looking to build.

Instill respect and connection within the team:

As much as it’s important to keep things professional, it’s also important to connect with your fellow teammates, while respecting each other’s personal boundaries. Have good working relationships so there’s peace within the work environment. As a leader, this will also help you be made aware of situations before they get out of hand/become a big deal, like in a case where an employee is going through personal things, they are able to communicate with you before it gets to lack of productivity, absenteeism and written warnings.

Practice emotional intelligence:

Do not neglect this one, great leaders value emotional intelligence. Treat employees like human beings, they are not machines or robots. Know what motivates your team (everyone is different); some people believe in collaboration to achieve a common goal, others believe in healthy competition. Either way, let everyone embrace themselves however they feel, people’s individual differences are not always an obstacle, it can be an asset.

Communicate:

Things are easier when everyone knows where they stand. This also helps save everyone unnecessary stress and resentment, which may lead to poor performance. Communicate if you’re not happy with one’s work performance or behaviour. It’s also a good idea to put systems to place so employees can express their issues and so forth. Brush up on those effective communication skills!

Reward good work:

There’s a saying that says “human beings are wired to gratification”, they didn’t lie. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs stated that Recognition is a NEED; everyone wants to be recognised, especially at work (by seniors). Besides that a grateful heart always does more, an employee who knows their senior(s) is impressed with their work will always strive to do more. It doesn’t always have to be something as big as a promotion, a simple certification, bonus or any other thing that can show an employee that they are being valued goes a long way.

Amongst all that we’ve discussed today, let’s not forget the importance of organizational culture. We have written a full blog on this, find it here:

https://accasesolutions.co.za/2022/01/11/organisational-cultures-to-adopt-in-2022/

Top 3 Mindset-ships for Business Owners

Mindset is everything!!! It is the only change that is long lasting, it happens WITHIN us. Sure there may be external benefits, but it starts from the inside. It starts with a MINDSET.

There’s a social media coach that likes to say…

“Entrepreneurship is a reflection of your inner world. If you are not getting paying clients, it’s because you’re not (emotionally) ready for them. If you don’t get what you want, you’re getting what you need.”

Business care is a self care shift from “I have to do XYZ” to “I want to do, I am going to do, I love to do XYZ” In any situation, you can change, leave or accept it.

You won’t have to start over if you don’t quit.

Unfortunately success has no shortcuts, you just have to go through the process. It has thorns but the outcome is beautiful. Be in your journey

Today, we’ll share with you our Top3 Mindset-ships you need to develop as a Business Owner:

(1) Actions create clarity more than thinking could… STOP tweaking behind the scenes.

Be clear on:

* What your offerings – post about it on social media along with testimonials.

* Who is it for/not for?

* What’s the process to go about rendering your service/buying your product?

Cut the thinking and start taking actions to get experience.

(2) Don’t ask anyone to do what you wouldn’t do.

If you’re gonna ask someone to see a therapist, have you or would you? Walk that talk. If you take the leap of faith first, you can tell a story of what that looked like for you.

(3) Stop comparing yourself.

Yes it helps you understand where you are in life and or where you place yourself. It helps you know where you are ahead of the game, what you need to improve so you know when to pat yourself on the back or to put yourself in line. But when it mutates into jealousy, insecurity, it becomes a cock-blocker.

A bonus tip from us:

“Don’t think about what can happen in a month or year. Just focus on the 24 hours in front of you and do what will get you closer to where you want to be.”

There’s a difference between being patient with success and passively waiting for it. You still have to put in the work for your goals, you can’t expect handouts from the universe.

Let us know in the comments the mindset you had to adopt as a business owner, we’d love to hear it!

Organisational cultures to adopt in 2022

What is work culture?

Work culture is exactly what culture is in our respective clans – these are the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.

As per dictionary definition, organizational culture is the values, beliefs, attitude and practices that employees in an organization live by. You can simply tell if a company has a functional or dysfunctional culture just by how it treats its subordinates, or even how employees normally treat customers.

In business, it is necessary to develop the success of a business internally. Happy employees make happy customers, a happy customer is a returning client and that’s how the business grows (especially revenue).

What cultures have you put in place in your business that will keep the internal stakeholders happy, while strengthening and growing the business?

Why is a work culture important?

The culture of a workplace affects the business largely. When it aligns with employees, they feel belonging – valued and supported.

One thing about culture, it can be used to outperform competitors, even attracting talent. People do consider work culture before applying, some would even take a lower-paying opportunity at an organization with a better culture.

What forms a great culture?

This is different for all companies, however here are 5 qualities you might want to cultivate:

1️⃣ Alignment – the company’s objectives have to align with the employees’. In this way, both are working towards a common goal and the employee will feel motivated.

2️⃣ Integrity – honesty and transparency is crucial in any team, members need to be confident and comfortable knowing that they can rely on each other.

3️⃣ Teamwork – this encompasses collaboration, communication, and respect amongst team members. When people have each other’s backs, productivity flows too.

4️⃣ Appreciation – even Maslow’s hierarchy of needs will tell you this, it’s everyone’s need to feel appreciated in any way. A simple kudos by your superior on LinkedIn, or a promotion no matter how small goes a long way.

5️⃣ Mental health (safety) – seniors need to make it a safe space for employees. By doing so, you are making it easy for employees to be able to open up about things that bother them and problems get solved quickly.

We hope that these at least serve as a guideline to build your culture in your business. If you have any in place, we would like to hear how you do things in your team? Leave a comment.

Brand Storytelling | Marketing

Oftentimes, marketers use the word “storytelling” and the importance of it. It’s without a doubt, it’s an effective way of growing your brand… and sometimes you might have done it without noticing. Let’s unpack it.

Firstly, understand that Brand Storytelling is the use of evoking emotions to connect your brand to customers, this creates a company’s essence. This means focusing on creating empathy by linking what your brand stands for – with the values you share with your customers.

The powerful brands that succeed in telling stories are the ones that know how to capture attention, create empathy, and drive them to take action.

Thanks to the internet, reaching out to clients has never been cheaper and easier. The problem is that you’re now competing with tens of thousands of brands – big and small for your customer’s attention. How can you make sure you’re the first option?

STORYTELLING.

The power of Storytelling

What makes brand stories powerful is one thing: EMPATHY.

Great stories create an empathetic bond, and connect you with your audience, it builds brand loyalty. This is because the consumer can resonate – which can help you with their confidence in your product or solution.

Stories affect us physically and mentally – this means that whatever you encounter, your audience feels more or less the same way you do because our brains can’t tell the difference between reality and story. The same way you can feel the pain your favourite character in a movie feels, even if the story is not real.

5 elements of brand storytelling

Consistency and authenticity
Knowing your audience
Communicating the problem you solve
Building your character
Connecting with your community.

How-To Tell Stories

Capture attention

Attention is what every brand is fighting for with its competitors. A marketer said…

“Great stories draw us in. They maintain our attention by taking us on an emotional roller coaster ride.”

This is just the same as in your favourite movie, you stay tuned until you find out what happens eventually to the main character. In this instance, you stay connected and attuned until you find out how a brand solves your problem.

Create empathy

By creating empathy with the audience, and telling a story that evokes emotion, your brands can take advantage of storytelling. We have mentioned prior that emphatic stories create resonance. So then, inject an obstacle into your story that customers can relate to, and position your brand, product, or service as hero.

Drive them to take an action

With anything you do, remember to insert your CTA (call to action) to compel action. You caught their attention, got them hooked to your story – mixed with emotions, now to offer them your solutions and add a call to action: it could be COMMENT, CALL US, EMAIL US, CLICK THE LINK, anything.

Examples

The following are common types of brand storytelling.

Mission – the story of why your brand exists. This also tells your audience what you stand for, and how they can possibly support you.
Vision – painting a compelling picture of the future of your company, brand and products.
Founders & Employees – what inspired you to work with them? What qualifies then to be in your team, or in your industry? Success in career?
Organizational Culture – these are your principles, set of beliefs, values, language, and everything that make up your brand and/ or team what it is.
Marketing and Advertising – your use of videos, GIF, images and other marketing material to communicate your message in a way that your target market understands.

We can go on and on but we will end it off here for now. Let us know how you connect with your target market in your business in the comments, we would love to hear from you!

How-To Plan your Business Finances in 2022 |

Most people can agree that the past two years have been unlike any other in so many aspects including, but not limited to finances. Businesses also took a head knock, especially those that were not on digital platforms. If anything, we’ve all learned that life can be unpredictable, no one would have thought we would be battling a global pandemic.

Some also think that 2021 was even more challenging from day 1. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know at the end of the blog. For now, let’s plan our business finances. Whilst many things are out of our control, we are still in charge – let’s plan and prepare!
Some also think that 2021 was even more challenging from day 1. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know at the end of the blog. For now, let’s plan our business finances. Whilst many things are out of our control, we are still in charge – let’s plan and prepare!

3 tips to plan your business finances in 2022:

Before anything, you need to set goals and objectives. Just to enlighten you: a goal is a desired result that you envision and commit to achieve, while an objective is a strategy or implementation steps to attain the identified goal.

Start here: How much money do you want to make in 2021? (Goal)

Secondly: How many products do you have to sell, or clients do you have to serve to make that amount? (Objective)

Have you had that figured? Let’s get started;

Budgeting – this can never get old, it helps you navigate where every rand goes. “budgeting is knowing where your money is going, and not wondering where it went”.

To help you get started, here are six steps to create your financial plan:

1️⃣ To start off, think about what you want to accomplish and ask yourself… Do I need to expand? Do I need more equipment? Do I need to hire more staff? Do I need other new resources? Most importantly, how will my plan affect my cash flow?

2️⃣ Create monthly financial projections by recording your anticipated income based on sales forecasts and anticipated expenses for labor, supplies, overhead, etc..

3️⃣ Through the year, compare actual results with your projections to see if you’re on target or need to adjust. Monitoring helps you spot financial problems before they get out of hand.

We wrote a full blog on this, see here: https://accasesolutions.co.za/2021/05/27/plan-to-succeed-finance/

Pricing – pricing directly defines your positioning – it tells people where you are in your business. Do you have to increase your prices? Let’s dive a bit into this:

Although this is not compulsory, it’s worth considering. Sometimes demand outstrips supply, there’s inflation and all those kind of things to consider. Review your prices and consider raising them. Take a solo entrepreneur that runs a consulting business for instance – attending workshops, seminars, taking online courses here and there – that’s a lot of knowledge for someone to charge the same rate year in, year out.

The more you learn the more you earn, it’s not clichè. Businesses charge for their value, not cost of production, etc. But it’s important to remember that whatever you do, have your target customer in mind. Don’t overprice.

Things to consider when pricing your services:

1. Figure out your service delivery costs – fixed and variable costs

2. How many hours it takes you to deliver your service

3. Taxes

4. Account for dry season and holidays

5. Most importantly, profit.

…for products, you might want to consider:

1. Cost of production/manufacturing

2. Cost of delivery

3. Market price

4. Taxes

5. Profit

A few other things many people consider this:

* What is everyone else charging?

* What is the top person in your industry charging?

* Where do you fall?

Savings and investment – we preach this all the time, but is it ever enough? Would your business survive another hard lockdown?

There are 3 most important things to take into serious consideration in 2022: savings accounts; emergency account, investment, and insurance (if need be).

Savings and investments are important for your personal and business reasons. Savings means keeping your money, investment means growing your money: both are important. With savings, you can have specific goals attached to it – this also helps decline you to be committed.

When it comes to emergencies and/ or unforeseen circumstances, many like to say that your emergency account should at least have 6 months of your monthly earnings for unforeseen circumstances: if you earn R10 000 per month, your savings account should at least have R60 000.

The pandemic taught us the importance of all these accounts, we never know what will hit us tomorrow. When it comes to insurance, it really depends on the type of business you have, or even where you are (stage) in your business. These are things you might want to consider factoring in, in 2022. They go in your budget and come first.

Here’s a comparison of different banks and institutions to help you make decisions for 2021: https://www.google.co.za/amp/s/moneytoday.co.za/best-savings-accounts/amp/

Let us know your thoughts – opinions and comments, feel free to add your tips as well!

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