Is there hope for survivalists? Success in running a non-VAT registered business in South Africa

Tshepho Brian Matlwa, Statistics South Africa

Business failure in S.A is high, with an estimated 40% of new business ventures failing in their first year and 60% by the second year. In this presentation in order to depict what are the major causes of business failure and how can we develop these businesses thereof we use the secondary data from the Survey for Employers and Self Employed of 2013 for age group from 15 and above conducted by Statistics South Africa. We restricted our analysis to a total of 965 964 Non-VAT registered business formed by unemployment. Furthermore the study is based on multivariate analysis. In the process additional considerations are analysed i.e durability, location etc. The study reveals that these businesses do bring a living to many. This shows that if more attention of improvement can be drawn to these businesses then more lives can be changed and positive economic growth can be yielded.