Now in its third year, the Business Day TV SME Summit aims to provide an opportunity for small business owners, entrepreneurs, incubators, franchisors, investors, as well as suppliers to the SME sector to come together and engage with experts in the business, technology, marketing and investment fields.

According to the summit, having founded Black Like Me more than 30 years ago during the apartheid era, and on the back of a R30 000 loan from a friend, Mashaba’s experience in establishing an entrepreneurial enterprise holds great value for small and medium-sized business owners in South Africa.

Mashaba will aim to highlight the City of Johannesburg’s innovative drive to stimulate inner-city opportunities and job creation.

Additionally, Darren Segal, personal and business banking innovation executive at Standard Bank – one of the partners of the SME Summit – will present advice on negotiating funding and finance to ensure effective cash flow management.

Complex tax issues will also be covered by a representative from the office of the Tax Ombudsman.

Taryn Westoby, head of Tiso Blackstar events, which manages the SME Summit and curates the speaker line-up, says, "We work alongside Business Day TV to meet the requirements of those engaged in the SME sector so that the content of the summit aligns to some of their most pressing concerns and needs. The line-up of speakers includes experts in the fields of business scaling, marketing strategy, intellectual property rights and risk mitigation."

Graham Mitchell from GROW will share insights into the leadership required to scale a winning management team. Vishen Pillay, partner at Adams & Adams, and an authority on copyright, patents, and trademarks, will aim to provide guidance on protecting intellectual property.

Therusha Bhagarette of Credit Guarantee Insurance Corporation of Africa Ltd will aim to expound further on the do’s and don’ts of risk management. The full line-up of expert speakers and topics will be published on www.smesummit.co.za.

International perspective

An international perspective to entrepreneurship will also be provided through Business Day TV’s The Big Small Business Show and a pre-recorded session with Uri Levine: renowned serial entrepreneur and founder of Waze.

Levine was recently in South Africa as a guest of Tiso Blackstar to deliver the keynote presentation at the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Awards to an audience of CEOs from the top performing companies on the JSE.

Leading organisations at the SME Summit

Once again, leading organisations have committed their participation at the Business Day TV SME Summit. 

The 2019 headline partners are Credit Guarantee Insurance Corporation of Africa Limited, SAICA, and Standard Bank. Other partners include BDO, Adams & Adams, Liberty, Payfast, GROW, The Tax Ombudsman, W&R Seta, Telkom, Santam and The Little Green Number.

For sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, contact [email protected].

Delegates who wish to purchase tickets for the full day event (07:00 to 15:00) at R995 can contact [email protected], or visit www.smesummit.co.za.

For more information, visit www.tisoblackstar.com.