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With heightened scrutiny in the SME development sector and growing economic pressure, Enterprise Room has expanded from traditional consultancy into more holistic support and programme implementation.Founded in 2008, the company initially focused on helping corporates design enterprise and supplier development (ESD) strategies tied to broad-based BEE requirements before moving into longer-term SME support programmes rooted in sustainability.It now operates across the African continent as an economic growth and delivery partner, having supported more than 4,500 SMEs, deployed more than R1bn in funding, and reached roughly 180,000 people through its programmes.“The driving principle behind Enterprise Room is that SMEs need recognition, they need support, because they can actually create the jobs and the economic growth that large companies shouldn’t be expected to do,” said Niall Gahan, head of SME funding at Enterprise Room.Gahan said this principle shaped the company’s move beyond annual corporate ESD budgets and financial-year constraints towards multiyear, co-funded programmes involving multiple stakeholders, with a more holistic approach aimed at creating both financial and developmental value.He said this reflects a broader view of South Africa’s SME landscape and the need to increase the sector’s contribution to the economy, particularly GDP.The scale of that gap becomes clearer against global benchmarks. According to the European Commission SME Performance Review, SMEs account for 99.8% of businesses in the EU, about 25-million companies, over 90-million jobs and more than 50% of GDP.In comparison, in South Africa SMEs make up an estimated 91% of formal businesses and employ around 60% of the workforce but contribute roughly 34% of GDP, according to the Banking Association of South Africa.Gahan said one of the biggest challenges in the sector is uncertainty around SME development policy, particularly following proposals last year by the department of trade, industry & competition to centralise ESD funding through a proposed R100bn Transformation Fund.Against this backdrop, he said Enterprise Room is trying to shift perceptions of SME development away from a compliance cost and towards a potential investment opportunity for both corporates and SMEs.He said many ESD programmes remain fragmented, often focused on short-term training or funding that is poorly matched to business needs and not linked to market access, with SMEs frequently moving through multiple programmes without a clear long-term strategy, creating dependency rather than sustainable growth.“Inappropriate and badly timed funding destroys businesses,” he said, arguing that support is often delivered without alignment to a company’s growth stage or revenue model.Enterprise Room’s approach, Gahan said, is to assess where a business sits in its lifecycle and what it needs to progress before aligning funding, support and market access accordingly.Their aim is to work with both corporates and public-sector stakeholders as an implementation partner that helps bridge fragmented efforts. “We’re the catalyst to try and bring some of that together.”Gahan also noted that economic uncertainty has made corporates cautious about deploying capital for development initiatives, reinforcing a tendency to treat them as compliance costs rather than return-generating investments.“Be bold. You need to invest,” he urged corporates. “This is the message coming from national government, the SME environment, citizens of this country, and strategic players like ourselves trying to make a difference, because we see how those investments argue risk and make a return.”Beyond monetary considerations, environmental, social and governance (ESG), along with sustainability and SME development, should be treated as a strategic imperative, according to Deirdre Steeneveldt, head of programmes at Enterprise Room.“There needs to be a culture shift. It needs to be a key performance indicator,” Steeneveldt said, noting that while ESG is often framed as an important marker, responsibility typically sits with a single executive role rather than being embedded across the organisation.Steeneveldt said Enterprise Room encourages companies to think more seriously about long-term impact rather than reputational positioning and to embed sustainability considerations into decision-making.This work also extends to SMEs, where the focus is on more practical, hands-on support aimed at helping entrepreneurs navigate growth.“We’re building confidence. Running a business is scary, especially when you’re doing it on your own,” she said, adding that many entrepreneurs need practical guidance, realistic milestones and ongoing support to navigate growth sustainably.This challenge, Steeneveldt said, is compounded by wider skills gaps in the education system, which often leave entrepreneurs without the basic financial and business literacy needed to operate and grow a business.Business Times
