FACULTY: EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY STUDIES

DEPARTMENT: APPLIED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

COURSE: BSC COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

COURSE TITLE: MANAGEMENT OF MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES

COURSE CODE: CDEV 451

SUBMITTED ON: SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

GROUP MEMBERS

MBINYA MUSAU E19/01526/18

NELLY AWUOR ABUOR E19/01522/18

TUMAINI MENZA E19/01518/18

NYAGOL PETER BRIAN E19/01531/18

LOISE WAIRIMU E19/01513/18

ASSIGNMENT: IDENTIFY ANY TWO ENTERPRISE STRUCTURES, HAVE A FACE

TO FACE INTERVIEW WITH REGARDS TO CHOICE OF STRUCTURE AND
CHALLENGES FACED
 ENTERPRISE 1

SUNSPRINGS HOTEL

This business enterprise is located in Njokerio, Njoro Sub-County, Nakuru County. The
enterprise has 6 staff members, 2 waiters, 1 server, 2 head chefs and 1 kitchen assistant. The
enterprise serves students and residents around Egerton University. The enterprise has been in
operation since 2018 and serves a variety of meals including beans, green grams, ‘githeri’, rice,
chapatti, beef stew and several other foods. The business was started with a capital of KES
95,000 and has grown ever since.

From the interview conducted, the owner of the enterprise chose to venture into the hotel
business in order to mostly meet the needs of Egerton University students who want access to
good quality affordable food. Furthermore, the communities around Egerton University makes
for a good audience as students who regularly attend campus are a frequent audience. In
addition, a hotel business around the university is a buzz as students are 24/7 customers who start
streaming in from as early as 8a.m till late to 10p.m.

The business owner also said that he ventured into this business because he can never run out of
customers as the university is constantly admitting new students thereby increasing his customer
base. Also, he cannot run out of consumers for what he is marketing as food is a basic necessity
which everyone is bound to have at least once in a day.

Challenges facing the business enterprise

1. Rising competition- Sunsprings Hotel is located in an area where there is high business
competition and retaining customers requires a lot of effort. To counteract this, the
restaurant owner and its staff have made it their priority to give customers a good and
easy experience at their enterprise.
2. Hiring and retaining of staff- The enterprise faces the challenge of hiring qualified staff
who meets its needs and are therefore constantly changing employees.
3. Rising cost of consumables- The inflation of daily commodities has posed a challenge to
the Sunsprings hotel enterprise as this also means an increase in the cost of meals, at
times leading to loss of customers who perceive the new prices as expensive.
 4. Losing loyal customers- The enterprise at times loses its loyal customers to other
enterprises who offer more attractive offers. This is detrimental as reputation spreads by
word of mouth among students and therefore, the loss of loyal customers means that
other potential customers are lost to competitors.
5. School holidays and breaks- During school breaks, the enterprise loses most of its
customer base and therefore, they experience low sales and less profit.

ENTERPRISE 2

THE COMRADE DAIRY AND FOOD ENTERPRISE

The comrade dairy and food enterprise is a business that was started by students of Egerton
University. The business is located in Njoro subcounty in a small village called Njokerio.
The business was purposely started to process and sell high quality milk products. The
business idea was generated by the high demand of milk from Egerton University students
and the surroundings. The business was also started in order to buy milk from farmers in the
area who are provided with trainings on clean milk production and husbandry practices. The
business also creates employment for youths especially from the animal science department
who help in the supply and sell of the milk products. The main goal of setting the business
was to 'bring out the best out of our people work and through them to create more
opportunities for more people to actualize their dreams.’

Challenges faced by the owner of comrade dairy and food enterprise

 Wastage -Some food and milk goes to waste each day when not a lot of customers go to
eat at that place. Some milk may go bad when the temperatures outside are extremely
high or when the electricity goes off for a long time. Inadequate quality storage facilities
make it hard to keep the milk and food stuff fresh for a long period of time. This also
leads to wastage.
 Licensing- The owner said that he faced a challenge in the licensing procedure since it
was long and it required a lot of money for the startup. He said sometime the high cases
of corruption added up to the delay on the attainment of the license.
 Inadequate starting capital- The owner said that the starting capital is a challenge to
any business and his was not an exception. He had to dig deeper into his pocket to get
money for starting his business.
 Expensive raw materials -Right now, the precise for buying milk if in whole sale is very
expensive. The price has increased to almost double price in the past four months thus
making it harder to get the milk to sell. Food stuffs are also very expensive to acquire and
transport to his shop lately. Thus he is also forced to increase the prices of the products
making it hard for customers to support the business.
 Competition -Other enterprises selling the same products pose great competition to the
food and dairy enterprise thus making it essential to work hard so as to stay on top of the
game.
Conclusion

Every business venture is different and faces challenges that are both similar and different to
each other. It is therefore vital that an individual keenly looks into the ups and downs of a
business before fully venturing into it. Entrepreneurs should therefore strive to come up with
solutions to counteract challenges that their enterprises may face.