Between September and October, the Federal Revenue notified 1.121.419 individual microentrepreneurs (MEI) and 754.915 micro and small businesses that had debts with the Simples Nacional, under the risk of being excluded from this tax regime starting next year if they do not regularize their debts. This scenario of default may be strongly influenced by a lack of financial organization, as shown by a recent survey conducted by Ceape Brasil (Center for Support of Small Enterprises) to understand how Financial Education is present among microentrepreneurs. According to the survey, 69,7% of respondents claim that they have had problems meeting their business commitments, which also includes paying suppliers or collaborators. And, when this is possible, the family's accounts take a back seat, how do they declare the 29,3% remaining
The Brazilian macroeconomic scenario is challenging for the Brazilian entrepreneur. We have an interest rate still at a high level and an economic growth still low. But the main challenge is the entrepreneur's own preparation. Many times, the person does not manage income and expenses and does not have basic knowledge in finance to make strategic decisions that can lead to the longevity of the business or to failure, explain Claudia Cisneiros, executive director of CEAPE Brazil, that specializes in the granting of productive microcredit, that is to say, combining loans with financial education of borrowers
Another piece of data from the research that stands out is that only 54,1% of entrepreneurs usually separate personal accounts from business accounts. From the total of the sampling, 5,4% of respondents stated that they see no point in separation. Other 25,2% said that they sometimes need to reallocate personal resources for the company and vice versa, and another 15,4% observed that they "do what they can", that is to say, they cannot have two distinct managements because the accounts do not balance
Claudia Cisneiros evaluates that, in general, Brazilian entrepreneurs already understand the importance of having good financial education to sustain a business, however, a lot of things are still done in a disorganized way. "It seems cliché", but the concept of 'finding a way' is very present when we talk about managing small businesses. Before, it was more common for people not to do any daily balance of their expenses and to panic to "settle the account" in the last days of the month. Today, most people already understand that it is important to carry out this control as a form of prevention, but dismisses the help of an accounting professional, for example, say
Self-criticism
The diagnosis of most (33,5%) is that the lack of organization to make payments is your main financial mistake, followed by payment conditions that were not properly assessed (27,7%). 22,7% faced problems for "buying things on impulse", without assessing the future impact. The remainder (16,1% indicated that the wrong choice of payment method or financing has already caused inconvenience
About the control of income versus expenses, the obtained data shows a worrying situation: 9,1% of entrepreneurs claim that they control everything in their heads and another 7,9% say they do not use any control. Among those who seek to take a closer look at their cash flow, 7% rely on what their accountants say, 14,5% use spreadsheets and another 61,6% use the notebook to balance the accounts
The research was conducted with 242 micro and small entrepreneurs who are clients of Ceape Brazil. Present in Maranhão, Pará, Tocantins, Ceará, Piauí, Pernambuco, Alagoas, São Paulo, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul, the institution has 21 thousand active clients, that is to say, with ongoing loans. Ceape specializes in granting productive microcredit, that links loans to the financial education of borrowers and has already granted more than R$ 7,4 billion in credit, benefiting around 1,5 million entrepreneurs, mainly in the Northeast region
