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How COVID-19 Impacted Our SMEs + How We Assisted

With the year wrapping up, we want to wish you a Happy Festive Break and share some of our highs and lows. 2020 - Supporting business owners in crisis in the first few months of the lockdown, our audience of small business owners was struggling, many were merely "breathing through the wound".See comments from our Facebook page during this time: Things are looking a tad better – here’s what they had to say in November: Let’s take a look at our highlights from the year: 

January

We shared our Content Strategy for the year. The content themes this year were: 1. Business Opportunities 2. Funding3. ResourcesWe started the year with our series Entrepreneur Support, showcasing some of the country’s biggest and best support organisations offering a wide range of acceleration, incubation and support services.  

February

We debuted our Business Opportunities Monthly newsletter. It is packed with news on funding and business opportunities, as well as support networks.

March

The focus this month was on our Resources page. Entrepreneurs can access free templates to download such as Business Plans and financial management templates.

April

The SME South Africa Technology White Paper was launched. The White Paper looked at:- The reasons South African business owners are not making use of technology at the levels they should.- The tech benefits that small business owners are missing out on such as access to new markets.- How technology brands should be talking to small business owners and the role of entrepreneurship ecosystem stakeholders in increasing technology use. The lockdown was extended this month, in response to the news we created a COVID-19 resources page providing entrepreneurs with resources and updates on relief funding packages. 

May

We added more useful content to our COVID-19 Resources page such as the COVID-19 Cash Flow Guide and the COVID-19 Small Business Relief Packages Updates + Reasons Applications Are Rejected.

June

For Youth Month our reporting focused on providing youth-centred content such as Business funding opportunities for youth and Youth networks to join. In June we also shared the results of our SME South Africa Survey Case Study. It looked at business products that SA entrepreneurs want to buy and how brands can market to them. 

July

The SME Solutions series was launched in July. As part of the series, we review tech products for small business owners, such as accounting software, POS devices and fibre.  

August

The SME South Africa’s ‘Breaking the Funding Glass Ceiling’ Series launched in commemoration of Women's Month. The series unpacks the funding challenges women entrepreneurs continue to face, explores the innovative ways women entrepreneurs are financing their businesses AND celebrates the funding successes that have helped women build innovative & impactful businesses. The case studies are available for download HERE. 

September

We welcomed Serv, a B2B service marketplace under the SME South Africa stable. The platform, which is a first in the country, connects businesses seeking professional service firms with top SME providers. We also celebrated Tourism Month with our list of 30 SME tourism businesses to support. See the post here. 

October

November

The annual ‘Best of’ series was launched. This year we celebrate and shine the spotlight on the most innovative business solutions that emerged out of the COVID-19 crisis. Read our articles:- 10 Innovative COVID-19 Business Solutions We Loved- 10 Impressive COVID-19 Business Model Pivots You Should Know About

December

We are currently prepping for the new year and are looking forward to a very exciting 2021. How did your year go and what are YOU proud of? Let us know by replying to this email.