Carbon-neutral wholesale nursery collects Medium Business Entrepreneur of the Year® award

Carl Pretorius, founder of the Paarl-based business – Just Trees – walked away with the Medium Business Entrepreneur of the Year®award at the annual Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS, held this morning in Johannesburg. A wholesale tree nursery that supplies specimen container grown trees to the trade throughout South Africa, […]

Innovative gardening store owner recognised as emerging entrepreneur of the year®

Vanessa Jacobs, the innovative business woman behind Sow Delicious®, whose inspirational vegetable and herb Slab of Seed® invention is taking edible gardening to a mainstream audience, has been named the 2016 Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year® at the annual Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS, held in Johannesburg this morning. Sow […]

2016’s top SA entrepreneur revealed

South Africa’s premier annual entrepreneurial platform, Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS, has named second-time finalist and owner of Agricon, Johan Eksteen, as this year’s overall competition winner at the awards ceremony held in Johannesburg this morning. Internationally acclaimed Agricon is a manufacturer of cost-effective, eco-friendly pelleting solutions for the agricultural […]

15 finalists named for the 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year® competition

Following a fiercely competitive preliminary round of the 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and Business/ Partners, a shortlist of 15 standout entrants has made it through to the final round of the competition, with the ultimate winners to be announced in September. We are thrilled to announce that we received 213 […]

What is driving SA’s drastic decrease in entrepreneurial activity?

Entrepreneurial intentions among South Africans has dropped by almost 30% in 2015 when compared to 2013, and almost halved when compared to 2010, yet the perceived entrepreneurial opportunities has increased over the same period, according to the recently release Global Entrepreneurship Monitor South African Report 2015/16. According to Kobus Engelbrecht, spokesperson for the Entrepreneur of […]

Your business is your economy

By Jannie Rossouw Head: Sanlam Business Market When I looked at the typical “hassle map” of a business owner, it dawned on me that we tend to focus on the things that we cannot control or have little control over. Here is a list of things we do have control over: My attitude: Do I […]

When entrepreneurship runs in the genes

With a family history of entrepreneurship running through his veins, it is no wonder that 24-year-old Taahir Isaacs is taking his own company to new heights, and aims to create job opportunities for more and more South Africans. Today, Isaacs’ group of companies – the Breadcumb Group – consists of: Breadcrumb Tech, Made in Salt […]

How business owners can drive SA’s youth entrepreneurship levels

The 2015/2016 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report for South Africa shows an upsettingly low entrepreneurial involvement level among 18-to-24-year-olds, when compared to the average figure for Africa in the same age group. This is particularly alarming when considering the majority of South African school-leavers do not enter into tertiary education and therefore enter the work […]

Unemployment remains the country’s greatest economic and social challenge

“South Africa should be tackling the rising unemployment rate by facilitating and driving entrepreneurship.” This is according to Christo Botes, spokesperson for the 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS, who was speaking in light of the recently released unemployment figures. Statistics SA yesterday revealed that unemployment increased to 26.7 percent […]

Is your business continuity protected to survive a crisis?

By Jannie Rossouw Head: Sanlam Business Market www.businessdirectory.co.za defines a crisis as: “A critical event or point of decision that, if not handled in an appropriate manner (or if not handled at all) may turn into a disaster or catastrophe. Financial challenges in a business may come in many guises.  For instance: A big contract […]