Educating the World’s Micro Entrepreneurs

The impact of business training on micro-entrepreneurs and their businesses is transformative and can never be overemphasized.

According to a research done by The Delloite School of innovation and entrepreneurship, far too many people are living with far too little. Most of the world’s entrepreneurs are desperately poor. They are not entrepreneurs by choice and often lack basic business skills.

The research examined whether access to business skills could help their business prosper. The study involved about 800 micro-entrepreneurs in cape Town, South Africa. It compared three groups. One receiving training in sales and marketing, the second in finance and the third receiving no training.

The results were categorized in three parameters; Survival, Profitability, Employment and Marketing versus Finance.

i.            Finance training made firms 12% more likely to remain in business.

ii.            Monthly profits were more than 40% ahead after any training.

iii.            After sales and marketing training, firms on average doubled their staff

iv.            18 months after the marketing course, sales were more than one fifth higher.

v.            Marketing helped top line growth while finance helped improve efficiency.

The conclusion from the study is:

i.            Business skills make a huge difference to micro entrepreneurs and the type of training received leads to different outcomes

ii.            The effectiveness of training depends on who is receiving it. One size does not fit all. Customization is key.

iii.            Marketing and sales training brought the greatest gain to micro entrepreneurs with little experience of other markets and businesses.

iv.            Research in the US shows that CEO with background in marketing are growth oriented whereas those with finance backgrounds focus on efficiency. These principles transcend geographical areas

v.            The research forces policy makers in developing countries to think differently about how they target investment.

Viffa Consult’s focus is to help both individual entrepreneurs and organizations grow into world-class competitive entities that can compete globally. This is partly done though provision of highly customized and customer focused training based and identified skills gap. We realize that entrepreneurs are busy people hence our training’s are designed to be continuous and centered on the busy schedule of clients. For more information on how Viffa Consult can play a role in the success of your organization, please contact us victor@viffaconsult.co.ke or info@viffaconsult.co.ke Tel : +254 723 982 2528/ +254 703 422 670/ +254 775 578 148