Edward Rankhumise, Portia Tlad
Abstract
The pursuit of growth and sustainability is a recipe for the success of SMEs globally. SME owner-managers ordinarily experience obstacles that hamper the prosperity of their businesses. It was, therefore, prudent to carry out the study to understand how the owner-managers view the challenges and how they can provide solutions. The purpose of the study is to determine challenges faced by small businesses in Mpumalanga province and provide probable solutions. In this study, a quantitative research method was used and was cross-sectional in nature. A total of 385 questionnaires were personally distributed to the SME owner-managers and a total of 101 were returned. Stata version 15 was used to analyse data.
The study revealed most of the respondents highlighted that financial support is very important for start-ups. It also emerged that business mentoring and consulting are important resolving the challenges faced by SME owner-managers. The respondents found business incubators to be important to assist them in flourishing in their business endeavours. The findings indicate that government support is important for the success of businesses. It further emerged that planning in business operations is important to avert the challenges that SMEs experience.