The Hope Factory Achieves 20 Years Of Developing Small Businesses And Impacting Communities

By Tando Faku Group Marketing Manager, SAICA Enterprise Development and The Hope Factory

There isn’t a formula for ensuring a business prospers for over 20 years, other than remaining true to providing tangible value consistently. The Hope Factory Group has evolved over the years and has been consistent in keeping up with industry demands in the context of providing impactful, Enterprise and Supplier Development, Socio-Economic Development and Accredited Skills Development Solutions.

Since 2001, The Hope Factory’s core focus has always been developing people to become financially sustainable through economic activity and to upskill them with the ability to create income for themselves. Over the last 5 years we continued to promote Socio-Economic Development (as part of the B-BBEE codes) for Corporate South Africa, by offering our community entrepreneurship development flagship programmes. We also started focusing on Micro-business Development customised projects that meets both the needs of our clients and the communities which they operate in, to assist entrepreneurs with the fundamental skills they need to start and operate their own businesses. Furthermore, we introduced a new programme for unemployed youth, which creates a mindset change to become positive contributors in their community, through job readiness and business idea generation.

Since inception, The Hope Factory and SAICA Enterprise Development have empowered 3024 SMME’s; we have impacted 2593 Social Economic Development Participants (both entrepreneurship and unemployed youth streams); 472 Youth graduates have been impacted with work experience; we have partnered with 147 SAICA associated Small Medium Practices to bring the Financial Excellence Offering to SMMEs and we have undertaken 401 number of projects across South Africa.

We are proud to have the history that we have had so far, and we continue to build an even bigger impact driven footprint for the next 20 years.

The Hope Factory is an entity of SAICA and delivers impactful programs that: Mobilise economic activity by enabling unemployed Black South Africans to generate their own income; Contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal of “Eradicating Poverty” (SDG 1); and provide dynamic entrepreneurial initiatives to empower small businesses from start-up to sustainable success. It offers impactful Socio-Economic Development and Skills Development Programmes.

SAICA Enterprise Development is an entity of SAICA and houses strategic Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) programmes and customised projects to grow South Africa’s entrepreneurial sector through advancing the sustainable growth of small Black-owned businesses. It offers Financial Excellence to entrepreneurs through the Chartered Accountancy profession and contributes to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal that speaks of Creating Decent Work and Economic Growth.