School leavers, and college and university graduates, will more than likely not find employment next year. But a financial knowledge course could go a long way in assisting young entrepreneurs in getting off on the right footing, complementing entrepreneurship programmes run by organisations such as Umsobomvu Youth Fund.

In line with this, EconoServ, the developer and publisher of the EconoAccounting software package, has launched a training course covering financials for small businesses.

"Only 5% of small businesses succeed. The major reason for failure is a lack of financial knowledge and management," says EconoServ MD Keith Levenstein.

All budding entrepreneurs have great ideas, but fall down in the planning and financial management of their business. This course, presented for the first time in SA, aims to assist SMEs when starting up a small business.

It is a hands-on, practical two-day workshop at a cost of R2 500 per person that covers all financial aspects of running a small business. Topics include:

* How to open a bank account and the best type of account to choose.
* How to deal with banks, with sample forms that need to be completed.
* How to do a bank reconciliation.
* How to produce monthly management accounts.
* How to analyse financial statements and present them to a bank.

The course also covers how to get the best rates from your bank, what information must be given to your accounting officer, avoiding penalties from SARS, managing debtors and writing up a business plan.

It is aimed at businesses with a turnover of R10 000 to R1 250 000 per month, small business owners, people intending to buy or start a business or entrepreneurs wanting to know what is needed in achieving business success.

EconoServ

Keith Levenstein has worked in the IT industry for 20 years. He was MD of Clipper Expert Group, importers, marketers and technical support of Clipper - the popular DOS-based programming language in the early 1990s.

Clipper was widely used in most corporates, with over 5 000 programmers becoming members of the Clipper Expert Group. As DOS languages decreased in popularity the company evolved into CEG Software Consultants. CEG became involved in the Internet business, and designed a unique e-mail-based product that (in 1994) allowed all users on a network to send and received e-mail only via a single dial up modem.

CEG was sold to Abraxas, later to become AST in 1999. Since 2001 Levenstein has been involved in developing niche market applications, notably an SMS-based product, and now EconoAccounting, the flagship product of EconoServ.

His expertise and business interests involve systems, database design and small business development.