Needs Assessment Captures Micro Reality
Sep 29th, 2008 | By Dawn R. Rivers | Category: Politics & PolicyLack of financial resources and lack of business planning are the primary start up challenges for microbusinesses in rural Nebraska, according to a recently released needs assessment report by the Rural Enterprise Assistance Project (REAP), a project of the Center for Rural Affairs. Access to capital, cash flow and working capital were identified by established businesses as top-of-the-list ongoing issues, along with management training in a wide array of business issues, most commonly marketing and advertising, accounting and bookkeeping, regulatory compliance and taxes.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this assessment was the way it demonstrated that the most useful way to think about small business assistance and public policy is in terms of revenue levels rather than firm size, age or any of a number of other characteristics. The survey results paint a picture of a wide swath of very small, undercapitalized firms whose owners want the training, mentoring and/or resources to increase their revenues. In addition, it establishes an important precedent: the best way, in the end, to find out what small business owners need is to ask them. Anything else can only be called a shot in the dark.
