INDUSTRY FOCUS: GOVERNMENT
Continued from page 77 CIPC’s role’s being twofold gives it a scope far beyond company registration, Voller is at pains to transmit, across myriad aspects of regulation and enforcement. “We have a heavy involvement in the area of international property enforcement, and play the coordinating role when it comes to dealing with anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiti ng activities,” he says. “We bring together enforcement and prosecuting agencies together with the rights holders whenever fake merchandise is being sold or advertised, and also have act in an educational capacity towards prosecuting authorities and the police and customs services. We have established ourselves as a substantial, sizeable public entity within government.”
INNOVATION, AUTOMATION, DIGITISATION While the pandemic wreaked havoc for so many organisations, CIPC found itself ahead of the curve and extremely well-placed to continue in a fashion as close to normal as could be hoped; it even brought the chance to re-evaluate and institute a number of impactful changes, Voller unravels. “Some of our most important work is in the space of massive education and awareness activities,” he describes firstly, “and one lasting ramification of the pandemic is that it pushed us into the realm of online webinars, allowing us to reach a far greater spread of people. This is something we now have no intention of deviating away from. “When the move came towards telecommuting and working from home it was a very smooth adaptation for us, as this was a road down
// OUR SERVICE DELIVERY STANDARDS SURROUNDING THE PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS WERE UNAFFECTED THROUGHOUT THE PANDEMIC // which CIPC had been travelling for many years,” he explains. “We had the infrastructure already here which staff were accustomed to using every day, which facilitated the move offsite and enabled them to continue seamlessly to register companies and deal effectively with every one of our responsibilities. Continues on page 82
TIPS TO READY YOUR BUSINESS FOR FINANCING
Natisha Lazarus - Head: Business Banking, Sasfin Bank
Small and mid-sized businesses are the cornerstone of South Africa’s economy. They make up approximately 98% of the businesses in South Africa, and yet they continue to struggle to obtain finance to either start or grow their businesses. One of the biggest challenges SMEs continue to face is securing funding to start a business or to enable the growth of their businesses. As a business bank that focuses on the SME market and helping businesses to grow and evolve into mature organisations, we have identified seven ways you can ensure your business is credit worthy. 1. Ensure your personal and business credit ratings are in order. Maintain monthly payment obligations to avoid defaults and judgements being listed against your name on a credit bureau.Your personal credit history will be reviewed as closely as the business’s credit history. 2. Update your information with credit bureaus. Credit bureaus collect data that is translated into a business score. Financiers use this to determine the outcome of your application.
3. Maintain your public records. Should you have any credit bureau listings against your personal/business name, apply for them to be rescinded. 4. Route all business trading (turnover) into your bank account to build a track record. Most banks base certain credit decisions on the turnover routed to the bank account. 5. Maintain separate personal and business bank accounts. 6. Apply for credit before you need it and do not overdraw your account without prior engagements with your bank. 7. Consider alternative lenders, as the conventional banking solutions may not suit your business.
Find out how Sasfin can support your business by visiting sasfin.com or call us on +27 11 809 7500
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