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Buzzwords and truths

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THE buzzwords of the day are ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘savings’ (the latter because it’s Savings Month, of course). And the constant repetition is beginning to get under my skin.

Somewhere recently (and I don’t remember where, so please don’t have me up for non-attribution of sources) a columnist wrote a piece about a wonderful woman he knew who’d started saving about a decade ago, stashing away a third of her salary in the quest to be financially independent by 40. She started, as I recall, on R100 000 a year.

I thought back to what I was earning ten years ago. If I’d been putting away a third of my monthly income, my family would have had to eat virtually nothing but baked beans and possibly hand-caught roasted grasshoppers. And like many others, I had commitments beyond my own home – my parents needed some of my help, as did a young township friend I was auntying.

Perhaps it’s easier to do if you’re young and don’t have responsibilities? I think of what I paid in rent, bursary repayment, food, transport, toiletries from my very first salary… no, I could never have set aside a third of my income. Unless I’d walked 10 km or so to work. Could you?

The Big Saver’s income has leapt since then, of course – she’s now earning, if I remember rightly, about R100 000 a month. Like many other people, I’m not. So she’s got a couple of million saved, while my monthly pittance has mounted to a few thousand in savings. (And my interest rate is lower because the amount is so pitiful.)

I’m not making comparisons to complain. I am much better off than most of the population of South Africa. I’m illustrating the ridiculous nature of the narratives common around saving: saving is just a matter of discipline, and saving is the route to wealth. If you are living with mom and dad and earn enough to save a third of your income, you are one of the probably less than one percent.

Such a large chunk of South African households manage on less than R6 000 a month - feeding, clothing and transporting adults and children from a tiny pot - that it makes me angry when commentators indicate, subtly or overtly, that this country has a poor rate of saving because its citizens are profligate, careless, feckless, over-spending, not disciplined enough.

Especially when the comment comes – as it so often does – from suited banksters or civil servants.

I prefer the stokvel narrative: save FOR something. The closeness of the goal (in a year I can buy my new stove for cash, avoiding the penalty of huge HP interest) is rewarding. And the instalments are more realistic, more aligned to the truth of the average working stiff’s life. For those lucky enough to be working.

My other beef is the heroising of entrepreneurship. I don’t deny that small business is a key to a healthy, thriving nation. But there are a few things I find worrying about the constant glorification of The Entrepreneur.

First off, we don’t all have it in us to be entrepreneurs. Let’s not judge people on that – we have different talents and strong points.

And we won’t all be – logic tells us that for each entrepreneur, it’s good and right that there’ll be two to 50 employees. So while we encourage entrepreneurship, can we spare some time to point out to our children and young people that success is not all about risk and selling? Can we affirm those who can’t/won’t be entrepreneurs and give space for their dreams too?

Second, let’s be honest and acknowledge that most entrepreneurs are not The Entrepreneur. The common prototype is something like Richard Branson – but most people starting small businesses won’t have well-off parents (Branson is the son of a barrister, Bill Gates of a lawyer) or a trust fund to support them in the first two years.

Accidental Entrepreneurs come out on top

And most won’t end up running an international empire, no matter how well they do. Can’t we find more realistic and down-to-earth entrepreneurs to applaud and to set up as role models for potential founders of new businesses?

And finally, I’d love to see recognition that there are a lot of older Accidental Entrepreneurs out there. The Accidental Entrepreneur lost her job in a downsizing due to the economic crisis, or worked in an industry that disappeared thanks to new technology.

She had to feed her kids, so she went to the market and bought oranges and onions and set up a stall along the side of the road. He found out that people would pay him to unblock their toilets and fix their shelves, so he became a handyman.

These people never wanted to or dreamt that they would start a business; they’ve been forced to use golden handshakes and stokvel savings and retirement pay-outs to do so, just to put food on the table.

They are real heroes, trial and error learners, feeling their way through a thicket of confusion and ignorance to make it work. They don’t have time for glad-handing and networking at glossy events, so the media ignores them. And they should be recognised. They employ people, they pass on skills, they keep families in school shoes.

They, too, should get plaudits, support from government programmes and the chance of a hand up.

*Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on twitter.

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