Lessons From a Hedge Fund Manager 🏦

Being an organisation that advocates for young entrepreneurs to have meaningful participation in both the private and public sector, the South African Youth Trade Association had a bilateral with the JSE Head for Enterprise Development.

Role of Private Sector in Transformation

As SAYTA we firmly believe and advocate for the private sector to play a bigger role towards corporate social investment. The private sector should assist in developing the disadvantaged as part of their contribution towards the country in which they benefit from. Given this backdrop, on our recent business trip to Johannesburg, the President and Treasurer of SAYTA had a sit down with the Enterprise Development Manager at JSE to discuss the position of young entrepreneurs in trade.

Lessons From The Private Sector

In a 3-hour meeting that was nothing short of captivating, we got to understand enterprise development from the lens of the private sector. Small and medium-sized enterprises are estimated to contribute 40% towards South Africa's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which make them a key driver in growing the economy. However, a key takeaway from the meeting was the need for young people to develop viable businesses which are also scalable. The consensus reached around this topic was that a winning idea is able to do two things:

• Solve a problem for your targeted market
• Have a monetization plan behind solving a problem for your customer.

According to business trends, 50% of startups fail within the first five years. Therefore, it is important to capacitate young people from the onset of their entrepreneurial journey.

The meeting concluded on a resolution that a more inclusive session had to be done which would see scores of young people benefit from the well of knowledge available at JSE. This capacity building session will be shared in due time.