And we're out of the starting blocks!

Wow, can you believe that we're nearing the end of the first quarter of 2011 already?

It’s been a busy start for us, particularly with the release of our SME survey results. The key objective of the Pastel SME Business Survey is to voice the collective trends and opinions of small businesses in South Africa and with the help of a sample of 200 000 Pastel clients we have made our mark! Click here for a synopsis of our findings.

The pressure isn't easing either as we're now working through the financial year end. So to ease the pressure until the end of April, our support team has extended their working hours and will be available to assist you Monday to Thursday between 07h00 and 19h00 but please be aware that the wait could still be lengthy. It's for this reason that we produce the annual Year End Guides and I really encourage you to refer to them first; they provide step-by-step easy-to-understand advice for closing the year. If you haven't done so already, download yours now by clicking here.

Happy reading and as always, we would love to receive your thoughts and comments on the publication.

Joanne van der Walt - Editor