Your Spaza Shop Is Busy — But Is It Actually Making Money?

Customers Are Buying — But What Is Left for You?

Your shop can sell throughout the day and still struggle to replace stock, pay suppliers, or contribute to your household.

Where does the money go? Are your prices leaving enough? Which products deserve your limited stock money?

Your Spaza Shop Is Busy — But Is It Actually Making Money? helps you work through these questions using simple records, clear calculations, and practical decisions.

Written by Douw Steyn for South African spaza shop owners and prospective traders, this guide helps you look beyond sales and understand what the business actually earns.

What This Guide Helps You Do

• Understand the difference between sales, gross profit, net profit, and available cash.
• Record money received and spent without counting sales twice.
• Check product costs, selling prices, markup and gross profit margin.
• Identify slow-moving stock, spoilage and other avoidable losses.
• Set clearer rules for customer credit and household withdrawals.
• Estimate the sales needed to cover operating costs.
• Plan stock purchases around available money and payment dates.
• Test practical improvements over 30 days.

Practical Worksheets You Can Reuse

Your purchase includes the Spaza Shop Practical Workbook in printable PDF and editable Word formats.

The seven worksheets cover:

1. A quick “Is my shop making money?” check.
2. A seven-day money record with supporting sales and stock notes.
3. A ten-product price check.
4. A product review sheet.
5. A monthly “What is left?” worksheet.
6. A weekly cash plan.
7. A 30-day action checklist and weekly scorecard, including a review of three money leaks.

A plain-language glossary explains the key financial terms.

The worksheets are completed manually. You can start with a notebook and calculator; no expensive software is required.

Who This Book Is For

This guide is for existing spaza shop owners who want to understand their earnings, as well as prospective owners who want to check the numbers before committing money to stock.

It is also useful for family members who help with buying, serving customers, or keeping records.

You do not need accounting knowledge to begin.

What You Receive

• PDF eBook: 86 pages, including eight practical chapters and a resources section.
• Printable PDF workbook: 12 pages of instructions, worksheets, and glossary.
• Editable Word workbook: The same resources for typing, adapting, and printing.

This is Book 3 in the Township and Informal Business Guides series.

Start With One Useful Change

Record a week of money movements. Check ten everyday products. Reduce one recurring loss. Protect the money needed for your next stock run.

The aim is to help you make clearer decisions based on your shop’s circumstances.

Start where you are. Make it profitable. Build what works.

Digital product only. Examples are illustrative, and results are not guaranteed. This guide provides general business education; it is not a complete business-opening or compliance manual.