P A Chamber of Commerce Meets in November

- Linda Jaquet –

Meeting with Municipal Manager

Members of the executive of the Chamber of Commerce recently briefed Prince Albert’s new Municipal Manager, Juanita Fortuin, on the Chamber’s goals, activities and plans. A number of issues were raised with Ms Fortuin, such as the town’s water quality, the recycling project and tourism initiatives, as well as possible joint projects. Sally Arnold described the meeting as productive and highly encouraging and noted that the Chamber looked forward to a more positive relationship with the Municipality.

November meeting

The Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce will hold its next meeting on 19 November at 13:00 at the Swartberg Hotel. The guest speaker will be Paul Hoffman,Branch Manager andAdvisor at the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) in George.

Hoffman will give a short presentation on SEDA's activities and its projects that support and develop small enterprises in the region. The Chamber’s Sally Arnold told the Friend: “This is an excellent opportunity to gain information and network with a significant promoter of small business.would encourage all members and anyone who is interested in learning more about support for small enterprises to attend.”

According to the SEDA website (www.seda.org.za) there is no definition of a small enterprise that everyone agrees on, but it is generally a description of any enterprise with less than 50-100 employees. It includes profit-making enterprises (businesses), as well as not-for-profit enterprises (such as co-operatives).

Within the definition of a small enterprise, many people also recognise a large number of very small (or micro) enterprises, with less than five employees. Turnover figures are also used to define small and micro enterprises.