Factors Influencing the Growth of Women Owned Businesses in Kenya

A Project Report Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA)The general objective of this study was to establish the factors influencing the growth of women owned businesses in Kenya. The specific objectives for the study were: To determine how socio-economic factors affect the growth of women owned businesses; To establish how personal characteristic affect the growth of women owned businesses and final to find out how support influences the growth of women owned businesses; This study employed a descriptive research design through a survey. The study focused on a population of 812 business women. They included all women owned handicraft businesses in the three handicraft markets in Nairobi; Westland’s Triangle Market, City Market and Village Market. Data was collected from 269 respondents who were selected using the stratified random sampling technique from the three different markets. The primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Research findings on the education and experience revealed that the majority of women had low level education and did not practice bookkeeping and budgeting in their businesses. The findings on family and work balance indicated that most of the women were married and did not get any support from their husbands. The results on financing showed that lack of capital was one of the problems affecting the growth of women owned business. They reciprocally used and invested income from the businesses on family expenditure. The study’s findings on personal qualities, networking and support revealed that women had a desire to achieve but did not have confidence, hence limiting their chances of running a successful business. In addition, most women ran their businesses themselves without support from any supporting group. The study concluded that the general level of education of women in small scale businesses is still low and thus the wide spread lack of good business management skills and knowledge. Lack of family support had contributed to poor performance in the women owned businesses. Few (about half) of the women had access to the loan facilities. Lack of good leadership qualities and the desire to achieve had led to poor performance in their businesses. The level of networking among the business women is very low. The study recommends micro finance institutions should provide access to credit for women entrepreneurs at the level of micro and small-scale enterprises, through innovative programs and financing arrangements that go beyond the conventional approaches. Married women should be given support by their spouses in respect of finances, motivational encouragement, advice and actual involvement in the running of business. Women Enterprise Fund should make provisions in its policies and procedures to support individual women micro entrepreneurs through trainings to improve financial literacy for women entrepreneurs. The government should provide special programmes to train, build capacity and mentor women particularly in entrepreneurship to change women mind set to make women- owned enterprises more competitive and continuously work towards providing conducive business environment. In addition, the government should support women micro entrepreneurs to form co-operatives to save and access credit more rapidly to improve their enterprises. Women entrepreneurs are encouraged to join stakeholder network groups to socialize and benefit from contacts