SME Survey is the original representative survey of small, medium and micro enterprises in South Africa.

Definition of an SME

The definition of an SME used by World Wide Worx is based on the National Small Business Act 1996, as amended in 2004, which stipulates varying definitions for each industry sector, including number of employees, turnover, and value of assets (see below).

For each sector, the definitions differ, except in the case of number of employees, where all sectors except Agricultural have an SME size-limit of 200 employees (in Agriculture it is 100). A Small enterprise is generally defined as having up to 50 employees, and a Medium enterprise from 51 to 200. Companies with up to 20 staff are defined as Very Small enterprises. Consequently, size bands used by World Wide Worx are designed to allow users of its research to assess the difference in responses between Very Small, Small and Medium enterprises. We also further split up the size levels to give a clearer picture of changes in response within officially-defined size groups.

Methodology

The selected sample is contacted by telephone to:

• establish the appropriate decision-maker to be interviewed;
• establish the willingness of the decision-maker to participate in the survey; and
• to filter out those who do not match the research definition.

Following this, the respondents are interviewed by telephone.

All questions are range-based (i.e. 1-10, 11-20, etc.), scale based (i.e. select one on a scale from 1 to 5), Yes/No questions, or multiple choice questions, a structure that allows for full statistical analysis, and the use of statistical modeling techniques when necessary.

The ideal minimum sample size is 2,401 respondents, which would provide a 98% confidence level that the margin of error for the overall sample is no more than 2%.

If required by the sponsors, the sample can be sub-divided in order to reach specific demographic segments or groupings of businesses.

Obtaining the Final Report

The SME Survey 2012 Report is available in PDF format at a cost of R13,000.00 ex VAT. To place an order, please e-mail details of company name, VAT registration number, address, phone and fax details, and name and e-mail address of both person to whom the report must be mailed and the person responsible for payment to Debbie Whittaker. An invoice is issued, and the report is despatched upon receipt of payment and pending publication date.

For research related queries, please contact Arthur Goldstuck

Download the 2012 Executive Summary