Abstract

The objective of the study was to determine to what extent the selected skills contribute to the growth and the sustainability of small and medium businesses. In an attempt to understand the underlying factors contributing to the high failure rate of small and medium businesses, this study focused on the extent to which small and medium business owners from two age groups perceived five identified skills generally associated with entrepreneurial and business behavior as conducive to either success or failure. A lack of entrepreneurial and business skills impacts on the growth and survival of small and medium businesses in the Johannesburg Metropole. A quantitative study approach using structured survey questionnaires was used amongst 150 small and medium businesses in the Johannesburg Metropole. Factor analysis was used to analyze the responses gathered from the survey. Findings indicated that all selected entrepreneurial skills (leadership, creativity and innovation, networking, goal-setting and time management) appeared to be critical for small and medium businesses sustainability and growth. Although previous researches have indicated that entrepreneurial skills played crucial role in small and medium businesses sustainability, this study highlighted some of the key skills and attributes that SMEs owners should possess in order to operate their business ventures successfully

Highlights

  • This study showed that the selected entrepreneurial and business skills namely leadership, creativity and innovation, networking, goal setting and time management are critical skills for small andmedium businesses

  • There are other essential skills that have a positive impact on the success of small and medium businesses (SMEs), but for the purpose of this study, only the selected skills were investigated

  • Previous researches indicated that SMEs were performing poorly owing to various factors which included the lack of entrepreneurial skills

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Summary

Objectives

The objective of the study was to determine to what extent the selected skills contribute to the growth and the sustainability of small and medium businesses. The purpose of the study was to determine to what extent the selected entrepreneurial and business skills contribute to entrepreneurial success. The objective of the research was to determine to what extent the selected five entrepreneurial and business skills contribute to small and medium businesses in order to manage their organizations successfully.

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