Challenges facing small scale businesses

Violet Wakoli is a small-scale business vendor in Bungoma town and had an interaction with West Media as she highlighted the challenges she faces in her daily activities.

Ms Wakoli stated that many small enterprises do not have access to finance and credit especially from financial institutions. The enterprises may not be able to provide collateral due to their small-scale businesses, most of these enterprises resort to borrowing from friends and relatives. However, this type of finance is inadequate to cater for all small-scale businesses.

‘’When your small business is home-based, home office deductions are vital for keeping profits high. However, regulations concerning record keeping are time-costly. As a result, lack of credit forces the management to use cheap and local technology which most times are inappropriate,” she noted.

She said many small businesses face employee-hiring troubles. The cost of hiring new employees is unfortunately rising. Without employees, a small business cannot run successfully. Nothing can hold business back like money problems.

“Other challenges facing small scale business include poor infrastructure, poor management of resources and inadequate support from the government. Small scale business should not be ignored. They can serve as the backbone of restoring our crippled economy back on its feet, therefore, the government should intervene and help these enterprises gain momentum,” she added

By Dorine Oundo