To develop an interventionist proposal, a professional qualification program was developed, with a portfolio of management tools offered in a learning trail (or knowledge trail or development trail) where the learner can choose their contents according to their performance improvement priorities, through the application of a thermometer that identifies their greatest weaknesses, to mitigate accounting, financial, and tax risks. By generating knowledge in a direct and simplified way, the authors seek to consolidate a healthy and lasting management, improving the situation of Brazilian beauty salons. The proposal has interventionist methodology because it has as its principle the theoretical/practical relationship. In addition it adopts an approach based on the engaged scholarship, which is a participatory form of research developed by the main stakeholders (researchers, users, customers, sponsors, and professionals) to understand and solve a complex social problem.
TopIntroduction
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a fundamental type of business for the economy and job creation. This statement is corroborated when analyzing the interview of SEBRAE (Brazilian Services to Support Small Business in Brazil), where president Luiz Barretto declared that SMEs “account for more than a quarter of Brazil's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)”. Together, the approximately 9 million micro and small enterprises in the country represent 27% of GDP [...]” (SEBRAE, 2022b). Saying that around 620,000 new companies are created in 2020, 85% were formalized as microenterprises and 15% as small businesses. In turn, a study conducted by SEBRAE (SEBRAE, 2022b) and FGV (Fundação Getúlio Vargas) in 2022 also pointed out that the most relevant activities are commercial and service activities and that together, they represent 23% of the 27% of the value added.
In relation to job creation, participation is even more effective. SMEs account for more than half of formal hiring and, again, the service and trade areas are the most representative. Still, in this universe of new companies, it is presented as Individual Microentrepreneur (MEI), which currently represents 56.7% of the companies in activity in Brazil (Agência Brasil, 2021).
Despite this representativeness and relevance to the economy, the lack of planning and knowledge of small entrepreneurs in relation to financial and accounting controls generate higher taxes and tax risks hindering the growth of these entities or even, causing their early closure (Araújo et al., 2018; Couto et al., 2017; Heinicke, 2018; Igartua-López et al., 2021).
Another relevant factor in small enterprises is that informality of the company is still present, often due to the lack of knowledge and direction to regularize the company before the government with the proper registration. It is important to clarify that informality is divergent in several categories, each with its particularity and that public policies should seek the elimination of this informality by identifying these characteristics in each sector (Feijó et al., 2019).
Among the public policies to encourage formalization, we can mention the legislation of the Individual Microentrepreneur (MEI). Rodrigues (2018, p.12), recalls that Complementary Law 128 of 2008 instituted the regulations for the MEI, aiming to bring formality to workers who performed their activities on their own, because “These workers constituted a large part of the informal ones in the Brazilian scenario in the 2000s”. Besides the MEI, Brazil still has the classifications of microenterprise (ME), small business (EPP), medium and large business.
Despite the various activities and economic contributions of all SMEs and the variety of forms of taxation seeking to facilitate and decrease the obligations for small entities, this research wants to specifically study the beauty sector that has as National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE) the code 9602-5/01. This CNAE corresponds to the professions of hairdressers, manicures, and pedicures and their numbers are highly relevant to the total of workers in Brazil.
From 2019 to September 2021, according to the Digital Government's Business Map website (2021), 348,442 new beauty companies were registered. Of these, 347,488 are composed of Microenterprises (99%), and the rest are divided into small companies (818) and other modalities (136). The MEI numbers are also not behind in the beauty segment, until September 2021 we have registered 939,677 individual microentrepreneurs in the activity of hairdressers, manicures, and pedicures.