ABSA SME Friday: A corner for entrepreneurs

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BUSINESS NEWS - ABSA has embarked on a campaign to support and empower SMEs across South Africa.

We sat with Clear Waters Trust to get a better understanding of their business.

When did you start your business?
We bought the business in 2005

What led you to pursue entrepreneurship?
I wanted to work for myself and create jobs for others

What are the challenges you experience when you were starting your business and how did you overcome them?
Being new meant we had to work hard at building up a good report with suppliers and instilling mutual trust. Getting together the capital for growth was also not easy.

What impact did the Covid-19 pandemic have on your business?
Not being able to trade and not getting the TERS funding, but still paying our staff their full salaries, utilised every bit of cash flow we had and affected our ability to pay our suppliers. We are still feeling the effect thereof and still trying to catch up to where we were pre-lockdown

Your business is one of the businesses that are part of the ABSA SME programme, what does this mean to you and how do such initiatives from corporates like Absa help SMEs?
We are always looking for more exposure and hopefully being part of this initiative will mean just that and bring in more business. This in turn will hopefully assist with catching up the backlog from the lockdown and enable us to grow the business.

What is your advice for SMEs?
Hard work pays off. It can be very difficult but if you persist, you will succeed. And don’t pay attention to your competitors – you do you. Each business is unique with its own challenges and rewards, so don’t compare yourself with others.

For more information about the Absa SME programme, please visit: https://www.absa.co.za/personal/bank/absa-rewards/sme-Friday/

BUSINESS DETAILS:

CLEAR WATERS TRUST
105 Heugh Rd
041 581 0466