Financial Management Practices Applied By Entrepreneurs for Operations of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises

The need to improve operations of small and medium scale enterprises necessitated this study to ascertain the financial management practices applied by entrepreneurs for operations of small and medium scale enterprises in Anambra State. One research question guided the study and one null hypothesis was tested. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population consisted of 811 small and medium scale entrepreneurs in Anambra State as at June, 2019. Out of which a total of 268 were sampled using the proportionate random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire with a 13 items. The instrument was validated by three experts and a reliability coefficient of 0.88 was obtained using Cronbach alpha method. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. The ANOVA was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that inventory management practices were applied by entrepreneurs of SMSEs in Anambra State. The findings also revealed that years of experience had no significant difference on the respondents’ mean ratings on the inventory management practices applied by small and medium scale enterprises in Anambra State. The study concluded that majority of the SMEs in Anambra State apply inventory management practices in the operation of their businesses