Cape Town - Since 2019, Bredasdorp’s community business hub has been struggling to fulfil its SMME-support function due to lack of funds and training, but a partnership between BTE Renewables’ Excelsior Wind Energy Facility and the Cape Agulhas Municipality hopes to change this.
Excelsior Wind, with the municipality, realised that the hub was not being used in the way that was intended and they worked hand-in-hand to ensure that the value of the business hub did not end up as a wasted investment.
The partnership provided funding and an SMME skills-training programme to fledgling enterprises in the Bredasdorp community to help ensure the local economy was thriving.
Excelsior Wind Energy Facility sustainability director Libby Hirshon said the intention of the business hub was to provide a physical location for local SMMEs to trade, as well as provide facilities for training.
Hirshon said the skills-training programme ran for a full year, with sessions running twice a week, every week.
“The participating business owners expect to graduate by the end of this year, or January 2023, having covered topics such as market access, basic marketing, online and social media marketing, and customer service support.”
This included two hairdressers, fast food businesses and a car wash, as well as an erosion control and alien vegetation clearing SMME, operating outside of the business hub structure.
Ucile Visagie, owner of Salon Sielie, said the enterprise development programme helped her in all business aspects.
Excelsior Wind Energy Facility social performance co-ordinator Jasan Johnson said: “We are already seeing amazing results from this programme, and are pleased that these businesses are showing profits, which they now know how to accurately calculate.”
Johnson said their service provider, Your Skills Gap Solutions, engaged the business owners in skills training covering business writing, compliance, budgets, financial report writing and bookkeeping, in addition to other key content.
