I recently had the opportunity of speaking at the Jo'burg Small Business Week. During the presentation a black lady asked me a question: "ťI want to go into business - how can BEE help me? "

I found this an interesting question and gave the following response: "The Codes do not specify direct help - even for black businesspeople. All they do is guide government and business in how they should operate to further the aims of black economic empowerment. Unfortunately you will not get a direct benefit from BEE to help you start your business. You well have to design a business plan, and obtain finance and other assistance from other agencies, e.g banks, SEDA etc. The B-BBEE act is not the one that is going to run your business for you.

"However, as a black women you are in a good position to benefit from BEE " but only indirectly. Many white owned business are looking for black partners and you being a women will bring advantages to the business in the form of additional BEE points. Of course you must convince the company that you have the skills and ability to bring in extra business to justify offering you a partnership.

If, on the other hand, you already have a business, you are in a good position to get more business, because businesses do want and will want to do business with a predominantly black women owned business - subject to you offering the same or better products and services as your competition. They will earn extra BEE points by purchasing from your business.

There is also a possibility of getting assistance, in starting up a small business, from other companies. If you have a good business plan, you could appeal to companies for assistance under their enterprise development programs. All companies will earn BEE points by assisting businesses that are black owned or have a high BEE score. There is a scarcity of suitable businesses that qualify under the enterprise development codes. If your business plan shows that assistance will give the business a genuine improvement, then businesses will be prepared to invest time, effort or money in the business.