It is estimated that the failure rate of small, medium and micro enterprises in South Africa’s (SMME’s) are between 70 percent and 80 percent. As a result, millions of rand are lost on business ventures because of essentially avoidable mistakes and problems. Difficulties encountered by small business owner-managers can be described as environmental, marketing, financial or managerial in nature. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the nature and importance of problems experience by small business owner-managers in the private health sector. The design that was used in this study was qualitative, descriptive, exploratory and contextual in nature. This study fell within the broad framework of qualitative research, as interviews were employed to do the research project (Baker, 1999:247). A purposive sample was used to identify the participants for inclusion. The target population was small business owner-managers operating within the private health sector in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. The sample comprised eight business owner-managers in the health sector within the boundaries of the Nelson Mandela Metropole, purposely identified. Before doing the empirical research, a pilot study was conducted with one small business owner-manager that fulfilled the required criteria of the research population. Data was collected by means of naïve sketches and semi-structured interviews. Data was analyzed according to the framework provided by Tesch (in Creswell, 1994). Guba’s model (in Krefting, 1991) was employed for data verification. Interviews were conducted in both Afrikaans and English. iii Direct transcriptions from the tape-recorded interviews ensured that all data was gathered and saved for reference when needed during the data analysis as described by Field and Morse (1996:64). The researcher took observational, theoretical, methodological and personal notes as described in Wilson (1989: 433-435). Transcriptions from sketches and interviews served as the database for the study. Only literature pertaining to the research process was consulted prior to the data collection of the primary data, in order to establish an effective research format. The problems experienced by small business owner-managers in the health sector were discussed under four major themes and several sub-themes identified by the researcher and the independent coder. The main themes that emerged from the study were: small business ownermanagers in the health sector lacked business skills and experience; had financial problems regarding their businesses; had difficulty building a customer base; and were uncertain in terms of their businesses’ future. Conclusions were drawn from the findings of the study and limiting factors were identified and acknowledged in the report. Recommendations that could assist practitioners, educators and trainers were suggested.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:9985 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | O'Connell, J |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Health Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | xii, 103 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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