Enhancing the running of small businesses in South Africa, the case of Limpopo Province

Abstract

The value of small businesses is known globally for its contribution towards economic growth, job creation and social progression. A plethora of entrepreneurial problems (for example, mismanagement of finance and lack of managerial skills) usually causes start-ups to have a short lifespan. Despite much effort by the government and private sector towards addressing these problems, high attrition rates among small businesses is still a problem in South Africa. Although considerable literature in entrepreneurship points out factors such as the lack of funding and lack of managerial skills as the leading causes for the high attrition rates among small businesses, research has overlooked one important factor which is entrepreneurs’ inability or ability to adapt to the volatile business environment. This is instituted on the synchronisation of entrepreneurship challenges. It is in this regard that this study seeks to understand entrepreneurship problems of funding and skills challenges when operating a small business. With such a gap, this study argued, the lack of localised research aimed at enhancing small businesses in South Africa. This constitutes a research gap, which this study addressed. To attain this purpose, an exploratory research design guided by a qualitative research method was employed. This was coupled with data collection procedure which involved extracting data on enhancing small businesses by means of interviews with 6 respondents who were selected purposively. The value of this work is that it sought to understand the finance and skills challenge within the South African context. The implication of the study is that it potentially provides NonGovernmental Organisations (NGOs) and government with valuable tools to understand South African entrepreneurship and the effective channels of intervention for small business ventures.