SMEs’ marketing skills challenges in South Africa

Abstract

SMEs comprise over 90% of African business operations and contribute to over 50% of African employment and GDP. SMEs sector has shown positive signs in South Africa, Mauritius and North Africa. In South Africa, SMEs constitute 55% of all jobs. Research such as Bowler, Dawood and Page (2006) and Phakisa (2009) reveal that 40% of new business ventures fail in their first year, 60% in their second year, and 90% in their first 10 years of existence. It seems that a number of challenges have been identified as contributing to the failure of SMEs in South Africa and worldwide. The research problem of this study emanates from the current high business failure rate as well as marketing skills of South African SME managers. The research investigates whether managerial marketing skills of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute to high business failure rate in South Africa. The research established that lack of marketing skills of SMEs definitely contribute to high business failure rate in South Africa. The study concluded that the lack of marketing skills has a negative impact on the success of small businesses. The conclusion is that a positive correlation between lack of marketing skills and business failure exists in South Africa. The challenge is to improve the marketing skills of small business owners as small business is considered to be the panacea for South Africa’s unemployment problems.