Importance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Economic Growth

This report discusses the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the growth of the economy. It covers the nature of entrepreneurs, processes of SME start-up, business concept, sources of competitive advantage, current level of demand, growth and development, and challenges of managing and running a SME. The report also explores the measures taken by the government to support SMEs in overcoming challenges. The chosen enterprise for this report is Wiser Funding, a company that assesses the credit risk of SMEs.

Small and medium enterprise

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
What is the nature of entrepreneur behind the venture?.............................................................4
What is the processes of SME start-up?......................................................................................5
What is your business concept and sources of competitive advantage?.....................................6
What is your Current level of demand and the competitive environment?.................................7
What is the Growth and development of the business?..............................................................8
What are challenges of managing and running the business?.....................................................8
What is SMEs current growth and development strategy?.........................................................9
What are measure of Government supports that helps the business to overcome the challenges
faced by SMEs?.........................................................................................................................10
Questionnaire.................................................................................................................................11
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The present report will cover importance of small and medium size enterprises in the
growth of the economy and process of Start-ups companies. The focus of this report on to
evaluation of an existing small and medium size enterprises and according to them design and
develop strategies for the growth of the business. Environmental and internal factors impact on
company's functioning and create barriers in their growth. Some barriers are:lack of financial
resource, ineffective workforce. On order to solve all that problems the government provides
some solutions and makes some schemes for them which helps them in removing barriers and
develop in the market.

INTRODUCTION
SMEs businesses are those businesses whose personnel numbers fall below certain limits.
The chosen enterprise for this report is Wiser funding which is registered on company house.
This company was founded in 2016. The founder of this company are Professor Edward Altman
and Dr. Gabriele Sabato. The main work of this company is to assess the credit risk of small and
medium size enterprises. Through their online platform they provide businesses who are looking
to obtain finance in order to operate business and make decisions quicker than ever before. This
company operates and pioneer of credit risk analytical and risk modelling. The main concept and
aim of this company to maximize their predicting power. This study will cover or shows nature
of entrepreneurs of small and medium size enterprises like creating jobs, community
development and help in the growth of the company. Some challenges and issues that these type
of companies have to face like implementation of new techniques, lack of potential and qualified
workforce that becomes the barriers in the growth of these companies (Wicker and et.al., 2015).
The main aim of this report is to evaluate SMEs and then develop strategies in order to resolve
problems that it faces and make growth from the business.
MAIN BODY
What is the nature of entrepreneur behind the venture?
An entrepreneur is a person who is responsible for organizing and operating the risk in
the business venture for gaining profit and productivity of Wiser finding. Entrepreneur helps to
occupy a central position in market. They play an important role in the wiser funding in order to
maintain growth and development of the company. Their roles and nature are as follows:
Motivator
Motivator is the most important nature of the entrepreneur in wiser funding. They always
tried to motivate the people and employees in company. They are give motivation to their
employees and team members. By this team members and employees are able to give their hard
contribution to achieve the goals and objective of wiser finding.
Innovative
Entrepreneur has the nature of innovative thinking for making effective and valuable
changes in product and their services to attract customers towards it. Entrepreneur of wiser

funding is sets the nature of innovation thinking. They try to create new ways and ideas of doing
things in order to attract more customers and SME's employees.
Managerial skill and leadership
Entrepreneur has the nature of effective and best managerial skills and leadership. It is
very important nature of entrepreneur in the wiser funding. Managers and leaders play their
effective role in the company as they lead their employees for providing consultancy to their
customers or SME's. They have effective leadership skills by this they are able to give proper and
best information to the employees (Pulaj, Kume and Cipi, 2015).
Entrepreneur has the nature is the wiser finding and they are played effectively and best
manner. That are helped to development the community by providing the best training and
development to their employees according to the needs and demands of them.
What is the processes of SME start-up?
There are some reasons of starting a company or a business that includes unique business
idea, to design a career and many more. There are some steps of starting start-up businesses
which can be used by them. For example, Deliveroo start up restaurant that is a platform that
provide higher end restaurant food to customers offices and homes.
Research: For Staring up it is important to identify the idea. After identifying a business
idea it is important for manager of hotel to make research before starting and operating business
in the market. In research, It identifies that consumers wants products and services which hotel
is going to offer. Other competitive companies that offers the same products and the ways by
which the business will fit into the market.
Planning: It is the second step of starting small and medium size businesses. Deliveroo
restaurant makes their ideas in reality. It is very important for the hotel to make a plan because it
provides guidance to them. For taking or getting financial support they require making traditional
business plan (Nielsen and et.al., 2019).
Business structure: A small and medium size businesses can be a partnership, a sole
proprietorship and corporation. Different type of businesses has different structure. It is very
important for a manager to choose business structure and then change and modify it according to
business grows and needs change. This chosen start-up is a sole proprietorship which provides
best quality food to their customers.

License and permission: Paperwork is very important part for starting business. Legal
documents and factors impact on the functioning and processes of a firm. Wiser funding and ths
hotel also took licence for operating effectively.
Accounting system: Any small and medium size business can run and operate
effectively when there is system in place. Accounting system is one of the most important system
for Wiser funding and chosen hotel. It is essential in order to manage and create budget, setting
rates and prices and also for filing taxes. For an effective accounting system, they can hire an
accountant.
Business location: Setting a location for operating business is very important factor and
step. This company selects store and shop in an area where customers can easily reach and can
approach easily. It is essential for a manager of a firm to think about location and overall setup.
Potential team: Hiring potential and effective employees for a firm that can help in
achieving organisational goals. It is main step of starting business as employees play a vital role
in the company because they are responsible for managing and developing their business.
Promotion of business: It is the last step of starting business. After researching and
doing all the activities a manager and marketer requires promoting its business. It is important
step that helps the company in attracting customers towards their products and services. For
implementing plan in effective manner and for getting success promotion does play specific role.
What is your business concept and sources of competitive advantage?
There are some ideas and informations that Wiser funding company includes such as it
uses Artificial intelligence technologies and it also segments its products by industry and
geography sector in order to maximize their prediction power as this company retrieve the inputs
that they need from their multiple sources and then provide the outputs in just few seconds.
There are some sources of competitive advantages. Porter's generic strategies shows and
describes the way by which Wiser funding company pursue competitive advantage in its chosen
market scope. There are mainly 5 sources or strategy that helps the company in making them
differ from another like differentiation strategy, People and process of practices.
(Khalique and et.al., 2015).
Differentiation strategy: It is another source and strategy by which the company gain
competitive advantages. Differentiation means to make the services and products differ from its

competitors. By offering products that have unique attributes that can attract more customers
towards the company and also can add value for customers.
People: People are the driving force behind competitive advantages. Wiser funding have
innovative and created employees that make the company differ. Employees of that company
tries to provide the best consultancy which improve relationship of customers with them.
Competitors of the company can copy their products and service but they can not copy
the people which are the best source of competition.
Process and practices: Superior methods of providing services can also helps Wiser
funding to enjoy competitive advantage. It is the sources which become difficult for competitors
to replicate. With the help of this competitive source Wiser finding make them able to being in a
competition.
What is your Current level of demand and the competitive environment?
Wiser funding is 1 of the pioneers of credit risk analytical that assess the credit risk of
medium and small size businesses. The current level of demand of this company is high as it has
developed some models to assess the riskiness of small and medium size businesses. It is also
specialised in developing and creating powerful and innovative models in order to assess
creditworthiness. It allows them to achieve extremely high performance.
Competitive advantages arise from the different and various activities that SMEs and
Wiser funding company performs like marketing, designing and supporting their products and
services. It is a practice of achieving and gaining an edge over competitors by providing a greater
value to its customers. There are some competitors of Wiser funding company which creates a
high level of competition in this field. It takes competitive advantage by working across different
economic and geographic cycles (Karadag, 2015). It has some principles also that makes it differ
from another companies in the same field. It offers and provides responsible business advices,
provides transparent, truthful and complete informations to their customers and SMEs. It also
focuses on enhancing customers experience and their data and privacy security which is very
important for being in a competition Some competitors of this company Modefinance, ETHland
etc. These all are competitors of Wiserfunding company and they create a highb level of
competition.

What is the Growth and development of the business?
Wiser funding has made a growth in this field and in the market. It has also invented Z
score. It is the number of standard deviations from the mean a data point is as it is a standard
score. It is the way of comparing results from a test to a normal population. This company was
founded by 2 members and they both founders have been doing research since 2004 and have
published various academic papers on its SME risk modelling (Martín-Barrera, Zamora-Ramírez
and González-González, 2017). They have also made their online platform through they allow
businesses looking in order to obtain lenders and insures that looking to assess the risk of
business applicants with the main aim of getting accurate data in order to make decisions quickly
that may help them in further processes. (Jamali, Lund-Thomsen and Jeppesen, 2017).
This company is probably the most experienced in the market and in the same field. It has
made various models of assessing risk analysis of small and medium size enterprises. The most
important and effective model is Z-score. This model helps in measuring of an observation
variability and also helps traders in determining market volatility.
What are challenges of managing and running the business?
There are various small and medium size businesses who have to faces many problems
while managing and running business. Some challenges like uncertainty about the future,
financial related problem, technology related problems and many more problems that becomes
the barrier in growth of the company. There are some strategic issues that SMEs and the
company have to face are as follows:
Lack of financial resources: The main challenges and issues that Wiser funding London
based company that assess the credit risk of medium and small size enterprises they also have to
face lack of financial resources related problems. Cash flow and financial resources are very
important for small business survival. Financial related problems are delaying in paying the bills
and paying salaries to employees are the problems and issues that are very common in this type
of businesses.
Lack of adequate technologies: The another main problem that small business and
Wiser funding company has to face is implementation of new technologies. Lack of adequate
technologies create a problem and barrier in the growth of the company. Most of the companies
and competitors are using new and advance technologies so it is very important for Wiser
funding to implement and develop the use of technologies (Hillary, 2017).

Lack of qualified workforce: Small and medium size enterprises have to face lack of
qualified and potential workforce. Employees play an important role in any type of company.
Unqualified employees become the reason of decreasing the sales of the company as they do not
have proper knowledge of providing customer services effectively so it is important for SMEs to
have a qualified workforce.
Political factors: There are some political factors that may impact on the company and
all SMEs businesses in positive manner as well as in negative manner like new legislations
related labour, immigration laws, interest laws etc. Decentralization is the main factor which
impacts on Wiser funding company because it provides consultation to SME's about risk factors.
Powerful interest can skew policy and riles making in their favour which can affect negatively to
the company.
Economic factors: Economic factors also impact on the profitability and company's
structure. Some economic factors are money supply, distribution of income within the
population. Economic climate and fluctuating exchange rates impacts in negative manner. A
country's economy also have impacts and influences market prices. It becomes difficult for
SME's to compete with others companies due to rises in market prices.
Social factors: Social factors that can impact on the functioning of SMEs businesses are
life style, values and customs of the society in which the companies operates. Language,
occupation income of person of society are major factors that affects the Wiser funding and
SMEs in negative manner and in positive manner. If the person of society are not educated
enough then it can impact on the company in negative manner as they do not have the proper
knowledge of services of risk analysis which the company provides.
Technological factors: Most of the companies now adopting new technologies which
make their operations easy and also consume their time such as: use of social media, live chat, e-
mail etc. Technological factors are increasing competition for SMEs. So this factors can impact
on SMEs in various manner. With the help of various techniques Wiser funding can easily assess
and consultant to SME's about risks so it can have positive impact.
What is SMEs current growth and development strategy?
There are some strategies which can be followed by Wiser funding company and another
small and medium size companies in order to growth of their business and also for being in a
competition. Development strategies are market penetration, product development, market

development and diversification but the company uses only market penetration and market
development strategy as these strategies are suitable for them and supports them in developing
their business in right direction.
Market penetration: Growth through market penetration strategy can be done by
increasing market share using by using services and products of the company. For effectiveness
of this strategy, manager of Wiser funding can decrease the prices of their services as compared
to competitors and also can marketing efforts in order to attract more customers towards their
company's products.
Market development: Market development is a strategy that can be done by introducing
company's products and services to new markets. For market development strategy manager and
marketer need to target market segment. It is a growth strategy for Wiser funding company that
can help them in developing new market segments for their current services (Descotes and
Walliser, 2018).
Except these strategies SMEs also focus on improving their business environment that
includes regulations, assessment of funding and review employment legislations in order to
growth of the company. By providing institutional support and guidance like financial support to
exporter it can make growth and increase profits.
In order to growth and development, Wiser funding selected market development strategy
in which it introduced its services in another and new market for attracting more customers
towards its services and products. It is the best strategy and for making this strategy successful it
requires targeting a market and a group of people because it is not possible for them to target all
type of people at a time.
What are measure of Government supports that helps the business to overcome the challenges
faced by SMEs?
There are some schemes of government in order to helps SMEs for resolving and
reducing issues and challenges which are being faced by them. The government has taken
various measures in order to obtain a solution for those problems that are faced by small,
medium enterprises and also permit them to play a capable and effective role in the growth of the
country's economy. Measures are as follows:

Promotional measures: This includes those measures that have been undertaken for the
promotion of the growth that is related to small and medium sector in the country such as
processes of goods and services, guidelines and programs.
Protection measures: It includes those measurements that are specially designed for
protecting small scale industries like Wiser funding in order to make them able to being in a
competition and compete from larger existing firms.
(de Jesus Pacheco and et.al., 2018).
Skills development: Skill development is a solution of problems and issues that are
being faced by Wiser funding and another SMEs. By enhancing the training capabilities of tool
rooms and also by developing SMEs institutions the government increase skills development
area of these companies. The agency under the ministry of these sectors companies conducts
programs for skill development.
Market development assistance scheme: The main aim of this scheme is to offer
funding for participation by manufacturing SMEs in international exhibitions.
The government has also introduced social security for the employees of small and
medium sectors industries. Social security includes provident fund and insurance that helps
employees get working capital facilities of up to 100 lac.
The government has also introduced a subsidy scheme in which a part of rating fee is
reimbursed by National small industries' corporation. This scheme is very beneficial for Wiser
funding and also for small and medium size companies as 75% of this rating fee paid to the
designated rating agency. The main aim of this scheme is to encourage SMEs to get themselves
rated. This scheme and subsidy is available for the 1st year only and then SMEs have to renew
this scheme by paying the fee to the rating agency.
Above all schemes Wiser funding uses market development assistance scheme because
this scheme can help its market development strategy. With the help of this scheme it can make
itself beneficial as it can increase their brand image.
Questionnaire
Name
Age
Gender

1. What is the nature of entrepreneur behind the venture?
2.What is the processes of SME start-up?
3. What is your business concept and sources of competitive advantage?
4. What is your Current level of demand and the competitive environment?
5. What is the Growth and development of the business?
6. What are challenges of managing and running the business?
7. What is SMEs current growth and development strategy?
8. What are measure of Government supports that helps the business to overcome the
challenges faced by SMEs?
Recommendations
From the above study it has been analysed that small and medium size enterprises played
a vital role in providing employment and create their own value. (Al-Azzam, Irtaimeh and Al-
Quraan, 2016). For future development of these type of industries it can be recommended that
they should more focus on technologies that can help them in producing more products in an
effective manner and will also reduce their time. They should also build and focus on digital
capabilities and capacities. It should also become a client oriented and client centric business. It
should also focus on building talent pool in its company.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that there is an important role played by
small and medium size enterprises in the growth of the economy. They faced many problems
related finance, labours while operating and running this business in the market. Government
supported them in resolving all the challenges and issues that it faced in managing business. For
their growth and being in a competition they adopted various strategies and models like Ansoff
model and Porter' s generic strategy.

REFERENCES
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