Overview

The Business Place is a network of small business support centres with branches across South Africa and Botswana. If you aspire to start your own business or you are running a business and want to grow it, we can assist you by providing information, referrals, training, workshops, networking and business opportunities.

Based on research findings which indicated a major lack of support for emerging small business it was decided to establish a small business support hub. The first branch opened in May 1999, at 58 Marshall Street in downtown Johannesburg, in collaboration with funding partners Investec Bank and the City of Joburg. Major demand for The Business Place model ensured further sites were established.

The core of each Business Place branch is the information centre, where clients are able to receive assistance in working out the next steps to start or expand their businesses. Clients may then be referred to other support organisations or SMME service providers, many of which are clustered in the same building for ease of access.

The Business Place Joburg has been successful in having a positive impact on the lives of many entrepreneurs; this has led to similar ventures being launched across Southern Africa in collaboration with local partners. The result is that there are now seven additional branches of The Business Place. See the Branches pages for more information.

This expansion also created the need for a central support structure, which led to the establishment of The Business Place Network. See the TBP Network page for more information.