Corporate Youth Jan. / Feb. 2014 | Page 15

Qualifying Small Enterprises (QSEs) By definition this is any business that has an annual revenue of less than R35 million, but more than R 5 million. According to the Codes, QSEs may rate themselves using only four of the sections of the generic scorecard, contrary to larger businesses- which have to be rated on all seven. This means as small QSEs just starting out, you may choose to focus on ownership and control until you are more established. Therefore as a business one should not only focus on ownership status as it has become the norm, but rather invest efforts to score high in other areas as well. However, to a great extent ownership is still considered as a major contributor. Access to Funding Funding goes hand in hand with economic empowerment, even though this is not the only piece of the economic empowerment puzzle In terms of the BBBEE Act and the Codes, all financial institutions are mandated to provide finance and financial services to black communities and their businesses. This varies fro H