The Challenges of Growing Small Businesses - International Labour ...

Table 7: Type of business by sector (percentages)
Sector Ethiopia Zambia Tanzania
Trading 33.1 - 30.1
Services 30.5 30.4 43.9
Manufacturing 25.4 43.8 14.6
Multi-Sector 11.0 25.8 10.6
Handicraft - - 0.8
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
Source: ILO, 2003a,b and c.
Note: The Tanzanian researchers selected their sample based on the three sectors of food processing, health and beauty, and
textiles. Hence estimates have been made on the distribution of those in the food sector, splitting them between trading and
manufacturing.
Not surprisingly, most of the women entrepreneurs were operating in what are usually
termed “feminized” sectors, and in some cases (e.g. Tanzania) they had been specifically
selected from within such sectors, as the three sectors selected in Tanzania would all be
labelled as feminized or “gendered” sectors. Having said this, there were examples from
Ethiopia of women in non-traditional sectors such as garage services; sale of auto parts;
sale of computers; woodworking; and production of building materials. In Zambia there
were examples from electrical and hardware stores, gemstone mining and processing, and
hydraulic and pneumatic repairs. It should be noted that the national research teams had
autonomy in selecting the sectors and composition of their samples, and this means that the
sectors were not identical and as a consequence direct comparisons are not always
possible.
c) Primary markets
The research findings confirmed previous studies which highlighted the fact that most
women entrepreneurs (as with many MSE operators generally) tended to sell their products
in local markets and relied on basic marketing mechanisms, such as word-of-mouth
selling, as the primary means of promoting and selling their goods and services (see also
Goheer, 2003, for lessons from Pakistan). In Ethiopia, 98 per cent said that they sold most
of their products in the local market place, with the remainder selling mostly to the
national market. In terms of promotion, 69 per cent of the Ethiopian women entrepreneurs
said that they relied upon word-of-mouth promotional techniques to market their business.
In Tanzania, nearly all of the women entrepreneurs sold locally within their own
district, but 79 per cent also sold within their broader region, and three per cent (4 women)
had international sales. Interestingly, the findings from Tanzania showed a shift in market
coverage as part of the business growth and formalization process of the business, with
only 29 per cent of the women selling outside of their district at start-up, while 83 per cent
of them were doing so at the time of the survey, which demonstrates a substantial
development of their businesses.
In Zambia, the profile of markets and marketing is very similar to that of Ethiopia. If
the five case studies are taken as indicative, most (i.e. three) have very localized markets
and sell by word of mouth; another (a guest house owner) has clients from the region but is
also trying to build an international visitor client base (primarily by word of mouth), and
the fifth business has an extensive market that operates throughout three provinces, and the
woman entrepreneur uses personal contacts from her previous employment in the sector as
the primary means of promoting her business.
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