Contribution Of Business Development Services To Financial Growth Of Small And Medium Enterprises In Jamhuri Market Thika Town

ABSTRACT

Small and medium enterprises SMEs play a key role in triggering and sustaining economic growth and development in developed and developing countries. Despite their great importance increased market competition especially from modern and large competitors makes it difficult for SMEs to survive. In developing countries the major problem with SMEs is difficult in assessing information, finance and lack of institution support. As a result to these difficulties most SMEs do not live beyond their third birthday. Some of these problems can be addressed through business develop services. The term BDS refers to a wide range of non-financial services provided by private and public supplies (BDS providers) to entrepreneurs to help them operate efficiently and to grow their business with a broader purpose of contributing to economic growth, employment generation and poverty alleviation. The study sought to establish the contribution of business development services to financial growth os Smes in jamhuri market in Thika.The study employed a descriptive survey. The population of the study consisted of the 527 SME traders in Jamhuri Market Thika as at 31st December 2013. The study sample size comprised of 159 SMEs. The study used a questionnaire to collect data. The data from the completed questionnaires was cleaned, coded and entered into the computer using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) for Windows for analysis. Descriptive statistics (that is frequency analysis) was computed for presenting and analyzing the data. The findings indicate that most SMEs attend training but other forms of business development services are not popular with SMEs. The study recommends that BDS providers should increase awareness campaign of the available services to SMEs.