Advantages of being Compliant

South Africa is one of the fastest growing and emerging countries. This in itself provides now a wealth of opportunities available now than any time in history. History has shown us a somewhat consistent repetition of world events, take the recession for example. Millions of hard working citizens fall prey and are stranded without any hope of survival when the economy turns. It is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing day in day out and expecting different result each time. The global stigma that has haunted millions of people has also in itself brought light to a few individuals who choose to find an equivalent seed of hope in the global financial plague. Financial freedom is widely misunderstood and since well financial literacy is not taught at school, it's easy to understand why the world is in a financial crisis. With that being said, thousands of people have now decided to take the future into their own hands by going into business for themselves, as most of us who are in business have realized, it is not easy to set up and run a successful business. One of the first thing which are important even before you open shop is business compliance. Being compliant in business will open many doors you didn't even know exist. The ratio of informal businesses is higher pinned against formal business. One of the issues is the availability and comprehension of information. There are millions of informal traders who would undergo compliance if they had the knowledge of how and why they should. The South African government has programmes in place to assist startup businesses and existing SMME's and the requirement however is measured on the level of compliancy. We will now talk about basic compliance for any business. First and foremost you need to decide what kind of entity you would like to operate from, this will be determined by your needs, for example if you plan to operate alone, then you might want to consider registering as a sole trader / sole proprietor or as a private entity which allows you to add more members as time goes on. So decide upfront which entity suits you best and register it. To read more about the different entities visit www.cipc.coza Once your entity is formally registered it would be wise to now tackle taxation matters. The issues of tax is the most widely misunderstood issue not only here locally and abroad. When people hear the word tax, they think money going out. The government is lenient when it comes to SMME's because you would have to strike a certain threshold of income profits to be liable for paying tax. Visit SARS and get a tax clearance and a tax number. This will help in many folds in the future Financials are also important, when transacting make it a habit to use your business account, if you do not have one, consider one of the four banks and register and business account. This helps because in the world of business, investors only speak the language of numbers, so if your numbers are good, your chances of receiving funding or investments are high Depending again on the number of business or and stakeholders, consider getting a BBBEE certificate, this will help Black Economic Empowerment projects fueled by our government. Visit any attorney and they should assist in getting your BBBEE certificate Last compliance issue to tackle is a vendor number, though not as essential as the above however it will also help in increasing the chances of doing business for your local municipality. Visit www.gautengonline.gov.za for more information. The above mentioned are but basic compliance for any business. If you are considering hiring employees then many more factors need to be taken into account. However if it's a start-up business the above should be enough to trade and contribute to South Africa's economy. Author: Banele Mngqi