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More than half of the owners of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME’s) say they experienced great uncertainty regarding the sustainability of their businesses during the last few months, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In an online survey conducted by Ipsos South Africa in September 2020, 55% of SMME business owners stated that they experienced greater uncertainty around the sustainability of their businesses.

A total of 724 Owners, CEO’s, MD’s and Directors of different SMME enterprises participated in this survey. We appreciate that every organisation has a different definition for the classification of SMME businesses into Micro, Small, Medium, and Larger Enterprises, and to simplify this, we have defined these splits using the annual turnover of the SMME businesses:

Micro Enterprises: Total Annual turnover of less than R5 million (176 interviews)

Small Enterprises: Total Annual turnover above R5 million and less than R10 million (385 interviews)

Medium Enterprises: Total Annual turnover above R10 million and less than R20 million (68 interviews)

Larger Enterprises: Total Annual turnover of more than R20 million (98 interviews)

The impact of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown on business performance have been significant, with 63% of SMME’s stating that they are performing “Not Well” or “Not Very Well” after lockdown, while larger enterprises are seemingly more resilient, with a third (35%) stating that they are still performing “Well” or “Very Well” after lockdown.

Full Statement Attached

Issued by Ipsos