By Elizabeth Nkukuu
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the development of any economy, this is according to the World Bank Group.
These statistics indicate that they represent about 90 per cent of businesses and more than 50 per cent of employment worldwide.
locally they represent about 98 per cent of all businesses, and more than 80 per cent of Kenya’s working population relies on them for income.
Despite the huge part they play, they are still very depressing statics in that 80 per cent of them don’t live beyond the 5th year of their inception.
To run successful businesses, the SME sector needs a lot of support concerning getting the right Markets. Right Networks and even getting the right type of funding at the right time.
In line, with the rest, funding has been cited as one of the main reasons that lead to SME failures with the world bank estimated that more than 40 per cent of SMEs have unmet financial needs globally.
The main reason for this is the fact that most banks are unlikely to advance finances to SMEs due to the lack of proper structure and lack of security by the founder.
Despite a significant recovery in the private sector credit growth, whose growth is above 10 per cent this year in Kenya, a lot needs to be done to ensure this growth continues sustainably.
The starting point to help access the right funding by the business a lot needs to be done so that the businesses are fundable and also to ensure that the business owners are ready to have new and outside capital owners into their business.
To help the business owners with this, a lot needs to be done and that is why the SME Founders Association has come up with a training that the founders can go through to get them ready for what lies ahead of them also after the training.
They are teamed with mentors to help them run their businesses. The other key thing that the association provides is the right network to grow the businesses.
It is always said businesses are a series of relationships and so the founders’ network creates a safe environment for networking.
Not only do we create an opportunity to share contacts but also enhance the capacity of the business owners to help them communicate better through the business dialogues having been chartered recently as a business club by Toastmasters.
Above all, for one to run a successful business, one must be equipped with what lies ahead of them and that is why our focus is on ensuring the complete well-being of the founder.
