Yeah!
he must try tellin this one.
Why BEE won't work for SEP's
PS. SEP = Self Employed Person
Isn't it wonderful how the government makes us feel more important than we feel? All this talk about being a small-business owners being a fundamental to our future economy, and even thinking so much of our businesses that they want to force us to share those businesses with previously disadvantaged persons. And they are so inspired by this small-business thing that they use a whole range of wonderful code words like SME, SMME, as well as some rather exciting definitions. Heck, every single employee on earth has bought into this dream and aspires to running his/her own business.
However, the reality was brought home to me this past week. Late last week I attended a short seminar on BEE within the tourism industry, and walked away with the confirmation that our leaders have absolutely no clue about what being a small-business owner entails. Unfortunately, nor do we small-business owners remotely understand their point of view -- because I seemed to be the only person asking any questions in a group of 50. I will talk about this later.
That same day I applied for finance for a motor vehicle. After answering all the questions, the subject of employment came up.
"I have worked for Best Seminars for the past 10 years." I said.
"Do you own the company?" She asked.
"Yes." I answered.
"Ah. Self-employed." She wrote.
The private sector regards us as self-employed. As far as they are concerned we don't have businesses. We merely have jobs. Worse, we have jobs with no bosses! Even worse, we are so bad at our own jobs that we need to employ a**istants. And because we are so risky they see no point in advancing us any money at all. They believe that their chances of repayment are somewhere between zero and fokkal. [Colloquialism meaning very little.]
In contrast, the public sector regards every self-employed person as being a small-business owner with enough equity and profit to share with other individuals -- both investors and employees (and, of course, the government). Not only that, but we must be astoundingly dynamic to be able to compress all the work that Telkom does into such a tiny package - and it doesn't seem fair that all this largesse be encapsulated in a single privileged entreprenuer. Hell, I am so far off that that I cannot even spell the word. There is a small flaw with this approach: if the MD of Telkom leaves, their service can only improve - but if the person doing my job leaves, then the firm fails. [Heck, even if I don't leave the firm, I still have a mere 4% chance of surviving 10 years!]
A few years ago a young fella joined a firm as an employee. Financed himself a car with no problem -- because he had a real job. Then he did a management buyout and became the owner of the firm. Great move, because he earned himself about 400% more than he was earning before (and that's just income, excluding the capital growth). Suddenly, however, it was almost impossible for him to finance a car -- because he was now self-employed!
If it is this difficult for a small-business owner/self-employed individual to finance a real a**et like a motor car or a home -- how difficult would it be for a black person to find the finance to purchase vapourware - which is how the banks see the shares in your job? And that's the main reason we self employed persons will not be selling our jobs in the near future.
However, I quote the esteemed presenter [leading government tourism player in KZN]: "Nope, that won't be a problem. Government does not expect you to give the equity away. They have made arrangements with a whole range of government institutions and banks to make hundreds of zillions available." Right.....
In 13 days final feedback needs to be given in for the Tourism BEE sectoral charter. That's a problem. Let me explain why.
The average small business (self-employed person) in the tourism sector does not understand this charter. They all think it doesn't apply to small businesses like theirs (under R 500,000 turnover, self-employed person with a couple of a**istants). At the end of an 18 hour day (and that's just looking after their clients) they face all the paperwork that the government requires. Most of them wake up each day just before they go to bed! They don't have time to read yet another government initiative, let alone understand it. Unfortunately, in order to find out or where they should be submitting their feedback to (if they had time to work out what it was) involves yet another search of Sherlock Holmesian proportions -- which most of us don't have the time for.
Government seems to have put the responsibility on us self employed persons to find solutions to the schemes they're suggesting that won't work. (Every time I mention that this legislation cannot work when applied to small-business owners/self-employed persons like ourselves I am told that we must come up with solutions or else face the consequences. Isn't that a bit like having a gun put to the head and being told that unless we surrender the car we will be shot?) Almost all of the figures quoted at these various seminars apply to large listed companies -- simply because nobody has done research at our level. And our reality is that the entire system -- and the complete slow time wasting process -- mitigates against any small-business owner getting involved at any real level.
I believe that any self employed person employing fewer than 25 persons, and turning over less than R5million, should be exempt. Not because they do not want to comply, but because they cannot. I would appreciate your comments.
Last week I promised that I would share the best accounting software in the world with you. I am sorry that I can't do it today. I ran out of time working on submissions for this BEE issue on behalf of 1500 Business Warriors. [And because I was having so much fun that I quickly did my personal accounts as well.] I will have a free trial download available for you next week. If you are not yet a Business Warrior - please consider joining for a month to see what we're doing to help you. [No contracts, just plain business sense.]
PS. SEP = Self Employed Person
