Seventy percent of South African small businesses fail within their first five years, according to the Small Enterprise Development Agency. AWS South Africa sees this as an area where it can make a significant impact with its Equity Equivalent Investment Programme (EEIP).
"One of the key challenges that a lot of small businesses face is finding somebody to guide and coach them along what can be a very tricky journey," says James Hickman, country manager at AWS South Africa. "I remember setting up a small business for a family member and going through all of the paperwork, the complexity, dealing with the tax issues and the company registrations."
Building business with EEIP
Setting up a company is just the first step. To grow, a business must align with customers, market its services, enhance what it offers and build its skills. Founders can quickly become overwhelmed and blinded by what they don't know.
This challenge defines the purpose of the AWS EEIP, backed by a R365 million commitment from the cloud giant. AWS launched the programme in 2020, and 47 Black-owned businesses have since participated.
"There are so many lessons learned by successful businesses that we can learn from, versus repeating their mistakes," Hickman told ITWeb TV Biz. "That is very exciting, and a huge opportunity for AWS to help other organisations and young entrepreneurs accelerate their businesses and their growth through the technology industry."
Cultivating what customers expect
In various interviews with ITWeb TV Biz, AWS EEIP alumni celebrate a programme that goes beyond technical support. They have gained access to valuable AWS technical certifications, notably helping their employees expand skills and career prospects. The programme also includes business skills such as FinOps, HR, marketing, strategic planning and performance tracking. It helps participating companies sharpen their focus and learn how to work with large clients.
"When you ask a small business to work with a large multinational or pan-African organisation, there are deep expectations those customers have of partners, including governance and compliance. That is something that needs to be learned. It's not something you just flick a switch on and you’re an expert," says Hickman.
This approach reflects a core principle underpinning the EEIP. Equity programmes designed to meet SA's broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) requirements can sometimes limit themselves to ticking boxes. The EEIP focuses instead on the bigger picture of what customers need, rather than treating B-BBEE compliance as a box-ticking exercise.
Hickman frames the EEIP as a three-way relationship between AWS, its partners and the customers they serve: "Ultimately, it's a positive outcome and impact for our customers when our partners are delivering our services with excellence. So, it has to be all three of us working in unison to drive the best outcomes."
Boosting talent and the cloud economy
The AWS EEIP is foremost about creating opportunities for small technology businesses to grow, gain access to larger customers and global markets, and develop SA's cloud economy and talent pipeline.
Participants are involved in the latter, hiring graduates and candidates from programmes such as the Youth Employment Service. These elements resonate personally with Hickman, who rose from waiting tables to executive roles at the top of SA's technology sector.
"I often think back on my life and wonder what it would have been like if I didn't get the opportunities I received... If you give people the opportunity with the right level of work and commitment, they can do incredible things. If we look at what we are doing in the EEIP as AWS, it is exactly that. So it resonates with me on a very personal and deep level."
AWS South Africa's EEIP has changed the fortunes and direction of dozens of small technology businesses, and they in turn are building a market that creates skills, employment and value in SA. It is a tremendous achievement, as captured in ITWeb TV Biz's interviews with several of the programme's participants, and another example of AWS's commitment to investing in SA.
"The more success that we have, the bigger the opportunity is for us to invest back into AWS South Africa, into the partner networks, and ultimately into the country," says Hickman. "I couldn't be more excited about the road ahead."
You can view the full video here.
* ITWeb TV Biz episodes are sponsored.
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