By Bridgit Evans
The impact of the recent looting and unrest in parts of our country has profoundly impacted many of the entrepreneurs we work with.
It not only resulted in stunted growth of their businesses, but has also threatened their livelihoods and diminished their sense of safely, trust and hope.
On top of the challenges of dealing with the impact of COVID 19, this has caused considerable trauma and strain, negatively affecting their wellbeing. Little is said about the mental health of entrepreneurs and we often don’t talk about the health of those who struggle every morning to keep their heads above water or simply to survive.
The journey of an entrepreneur is filled with many ups and downs, and there are many demands placed on them in starting and growing a business. It is easy during this process to neglect the most important thing – personal care.
For this reason and with October being Mental Health Awareness Month, we invested R300 000 into the RESTORE Programme in partnership with one of our stakeholders, FURTHER. This initiative provides trauma counselling and support to some of the current and alumni entrepreneurs who have been part of our programmes, who are grappling with the after-effects of the challenges that the last 18 months have brought to their lives.
The programme is designed to provide support in the form of virtual group workshops, run by a clinical psychologist. These equip entrepreneurs with the skills and processes to manage their mental health and ensure success in their personal and entrepreneurial journey.
We have also offered one-on-one counselling through Syked, a virtual private counselling platform that connects individuals to a network of qualified therapists via video call, text and telephonic support. Syked was one of the winners in our 2020 Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards.
The feedback from these programmes has been insightful. We were not sure what to expect, and were surprised and encouraged by the uptake of this opportunity. Many participants had been struggling to understand the psychological impact of the current socio-political context on a personal level and as a small business owner.
Others were finding it difficult to differentiate between the psychological terms that are prevalent in the current climate, such as crisis, trauma, devastation, deprivation, burnout and stress.
Misconceptions can range anywhere from denial of depression to associating mental illness with weakness. It is, therefore, important to de-stigmatise issues around mental health and bring people together on common platforms for better knowledge flows. This can result in better consensus, which can translate to positive outcomes for small business owners and entrepreneurs, not just in their work lives, but also in their personal ones.
Mental health issues can be as crippling as physical ones if not given timely care, with loss of productivity a common effect of mental illnesses. This is something entrepreneurs can ill afford.
High incidences of mental illnesses among entrepreneurs will also have a direct bearing on the performance of the whole start-up ecosystem. It is, therefore, essential that we create good support systems and challenge the social stigma around mental illness by raising awareness in our communities, not just now, but also in the long term.
As one of our participants said, “Healing is an ongoing process.”
Profile of Bridgit Evans
Bridgit Evans is has headed up the SAB Foundation for 7 years. It invests in and provides business support to approximately 120 small and growing businesses and social innovators per annum. In addition, the SAB Foundation has a special focus on disability empowerment and job creating farming projects.
About the SAB Foundation
Founded in 2010, the SAB Foundation provides funding for small, medium and micro-sized enterprises in order to contribute to the economic and social empowerment of historically disadvantaged persons through entrepreneurship development. The SAB Foundation’s primary beneficiaries are women, youth, people living with disabilities and people living in rural areas, from low-income backgrounds. More than R339 million to date has been invested in social innovation, disability empowerment and SMMEs.
About FURTHER
FURTHER designs and implements holistic development programmes for impact entrepreneurs and their organisations, to grow them into high performing leaders and sustainable businesses. The starting point is the personal capacity-building and wellbeing of the entrepreneur, combined with the technical business support needed to grow a sustainable impact enterprise. For more about FURTHER visit www.furtherimpact.co
