When people speak about start-ups, they often only mention the successful ones. Stats, however, show that five years after founding only half of all businesses are still alive and after ten years only one third remain. The list of reasons for this is endless, ranging from a lack of capital to volatile markets and poor hiring choices.

If your business is struggling it’s not unusual and there are definitely things you can do about it, but should you? Here’s our guide for knowing how and when to save your start-up.

It’s been a year since 24 May 2023 when company directors and members of close corporations became obliged to lodge a Beneficial Ownership Register plus supporting documents with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) - which also needs to be maintained, updated timeously and confirmed annually.  

Since all entities should have lodged this register by 24 May 2024 - a year later - it has now become mandatory to file beneficial ownership information before the annual returns can be submitted. Non-compliance with the beneficial ownership requirements has consequences, as does failing to submit the annual return timeously.

On the 1st of March 2024, South Africa’s official regulatory body for registering companies, co-operatives, and intellectual property rights (including trademarks, patents, designs and copyrights), the CIPC, put a notice on its website about a hacking incident on Thursday, the 29th of February 2024.

Since then, additional information has come to light, which indicates this may be worse than the agency believes. Here are the five things you need to do after the CIPC hack.