Factors affecting the survival of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Abstract

The study investigated the factors affecting the survival of SMEs in Gulu town. The main objective was to find out whether the human, social, physical and financial capital influences the survival of SMEs. The study employed the cross-sectional research design and purposive sampling was used to determine the sample, whose size was 25 respondents. Data collection was done using self-administered questionnaires presented to 25 business owners, managers and staff in SMEs in Gulu town and frequency tables, pie charts and bar graphs were used for data analysis. Study results indicated that the presence of human, social, physical and financial capital has a positive influence on SME survival. Training of entrepreneurs and employees, rural urbanisation, formation of institutions and subsidization policies by the government were recommended to remedy the situation of high failure rates of SMEs.