A two-phase study was conducted in the Mopani and Vhembe Districts of the Limpopo Province of South Africa to identify types of small-scale businesses used by households to improve their income. The ...study sample was made up of 240 households from 16 villages and members from 16 organizations working with households in small-scale, business-related activities. Phase one of the study collected data on the types of small-scale businesses carried out by households and organizations assisting them. Phase two developed training manuals and offered training to households. The findings revealed that self-employment from sales of prepared and processed foods provided the main source of income for most households. Clothing and needlework and housing and art/craft were also used by families to generate income. Problems experienced included lack of technical/management skills, lack of marketing/business skills, inadequate operational funds, low profit margins, unavailability of raw materials and competition from big businesses. The findings highlighted the importance of consumer science-related skills in poverty alleviation programmes targeting low-resource households.
Effective utilization of quality business information is crucial in attaining long-term and sustainable economic growth of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It is established that SMEs in ...northern Uganda operate in a business environment that is characterized by fragmented and incomplete information. It is a situation where an awareness of markets, technology, policies, regulations and finance is limited because businesses fail to receive timely business information. This article reports a portion of the results of a larger study using a descriptive design with survey research and other techniques. The study examined the problems SMEs in northern Uganda face in accessing business information; identified problems information providers face in providing business information to the SMEs in the region and attempted to establish whether SMEs in northern Uganda use public libraries in accessing business information as should be expected. The study’s respondents included the SMEs, information providers and business policy makers with the response rate of 87.3%; 72% and 85% respectively. The article proposes strategic interventions for business information to be accessed by the SMEs. It concludes that there is a need for Uganda and, in particular, northern Uganda to develop a strategy for business information access by the SMEs
development of the Small-scale business and private businesses - one of the most urgent problems in Uzbekistan. While the relative weight and importance of a small-scale business grow in economy, a ...share of these indicators more low than in the developed countries. One of the most important factors mentioning efficiency of functioning of a small-scale business, the state comprehensive (institutional) support of business is.
In recent years, urban residential neighbourhoods in the Netherlands have become increasingly known to function as incubation zones for small-scale businesses. Despite this development, little is ...known about whether and how the local production environment in these neighbourhoods shapes firm development prospects. In this paper we remedy this shortcoming by studying how two aspects of the local production environment, namely the neighbourhood built environment and spatial regulations, affect firm mobility of small-scale businesses in urban residential neighbourhoods. Towards this aim, we contrast two sets of urban neighbourhoods, namely pre-WWII and post-WWII neighbourhoods, with comparable, low socio-economic profile, but with distinct built environment and spatial regulations. We combine quantitative and qualitative methods analysing available trade register data from Dutch regional Chambers of Commerce, studying neighbourhood development plans, and conducting focus group and individual interviews with neighbourhood experts and entrepreneurs. The local built environment and its spatial regulations do indeed appear to affect firm mobility choices of entrepreneurs in the studied neighbourhoods, although overall mobility rates do not significantly differ between pre-war and post-war neighbourhoods. Further analysis, however, reveals that these two sets of neighbourhoods offer distinct local production environments, since the nature of commercial activities and entrepreneurs' neighbourhood experiences differ notably.
In article some results of research received by the author of some the Moscow small enterprises are analyzed. Under a critical corner of sight activity on support of SME in Russia is considered. ...Problems of small business are formulated and ranged.
Introduction Sparks, Edith
Capital Intentions,
11/2006
Book Chapter
Female proprietors are one of the fastest-growing participants in the commercial economy. Between 1850 and 1920, female proprietors operated small-scale businesses concentrated in the apparel, ...laundry, accommodations, beauty, and retail industries. Focusing on female business owners in San Francisco, this book demonstrates the commercial behavior of women proprietors and how they confronted several challenges at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.
Article is devoted features of marketing of small enterprises in the meat industry. Development of the modern state is impossible without development of small and average business. Businessmen bring ...the greatest the innovative contribution to development of any sphere, including in development of the meat industry. However the important problem for them there is a problem of competitiveness, growth and development of the business. Not always the enterprise talent can cope with external threats and see new possibilities and prospects. Therefore the important role marketing here should play. In existing the marketing theory there is a problem – absence of special marketing instruments and processes for a small-scale business. The approach offered in article allows to overcome this problem and to develop necessary marketing toolkit.
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