Abstract
This study is about entrepreneur Kencho Tshomo who is sole proprietor of the business which is located in Lhuentse. Main aim of this study is to examine the situation of sole proprietorship and moreover challenges and opportunities of small scale business which is located in the rural area. Correspondingly to know about how she is managing her expenses and debts since sole proprietor refers to a person who owns the business and is personally responsible for its debts.
Brief history of the business
A small scale business is a business that is not large, in terms of its size, scope of operation, financial involvement and the work force involved. In line with above statement, Mrs. Kencho Tshomo started his business in the year 2006, with the aim of supplying various goods to nearby village. She started the business with the working capital of nu. 10000 which is insufficient in running business. Even though she continued to run the business without taking any loan from financial institutions as at that time she was not able to take much more risk along. Now she is one of the main supplier of goods in two gewogs of Lhuentse dzongkhag. Till 2006, she was farmer, due to her illness she was not able to work in field and faced lot of difficulties with her siblings. Further she was worried about how she would be possible to feed her siblings in near future. Then, Mrs. Kencho Tshomo started thinking to run the business to sustain the life of the family. And her business of general shop and bar came to an existence. Gradually she expanded her business attaching restaurant with shop.
Challenges
Working capital insufficiency.
Working capital is said to be life blood of business concern. Business cannot make progress without having sufficient working capital. It is said that business firm exist if they do not earn any profits but cannot survive if they fail to have sufficient working capital and liquidity of the assets. In line with that her business entered the competitive market with the working capital of nu. 10000 which is too less from the business point of view, with the aim of supplying variety of goods within the locality. Therefore main challenges she faced was insufficient working capital during the startup of the business.
Bearing of losses.
Once the business has entered the competitive market nobody would like to suffer losses, everyone aims to earn profits. Correspondingly she started the business with the motive to earn profit and sustain the life of the business in this competitive market. But due to change in consumers taste and preferences some of the goods which is not well known to the customer are left unsold, so the goods gets expired and suffers losses due to those unsold goods which is left in the store.
Problem in obtaining all goods at one time.
Basically general shop often sells staple food items and the various household goods such as hardware and electrical supplies etc… Since her business is based on supplying of general goods, she have to obtain orders from the warehouse or the main dealer of goods. Therefore at the time of obtaining goods, due to change in consumers demand some stock of goods cannot be cleared which cause delay in obtaining all goods at one time. Moreover she noted that, nowadays due to outbreak of deadly disease called Covid-19 most of the people buys rice and eatable items in stock, even though it’s good that her stock gets cleared but it cause bit delay in selling other goods in a certain period of time.
Delay in payment of credit by customer.
As the business is located at the rural place of the country her targeted customer are mostly of low income group and farmers. Therefore most of the people takes goods on credit with the promises of clearing it sooner. She point out that, since she does not have any terms and condition while supplying goods on credit, the credit period of customer mostly ranges from two to three years, which indirectly affects the growth and stability of the business.
Opportunities
Location of the business.
Location plays a vital role in the stability and growth of the business. If the business is located far from main roads and villages the sales of goods cannot be proceeded and affect the overall performance of the business. Here Mrs. Kencho’s general shop was located few kilometer far from the main town and beside the main road, which is a main high way of two gewogs. Location of business became opportunity to her as she is able to sale goods at reasonable price in the given time period and has a great opportunity of expansion of the business.
Being uneducated is not a threat.
Here I can clearly say that she is uneducated and her business is profitable now and can be profitable for many years in near future. She says that without an experience and proper idea of doing business, Ph.D. and university degree is of worth nothing, business is all about framing of best plan and procedure to earn profit and moreover being resilient is one of the important aspect of the business. Therefore she says being uneducated is not always a threat, she took this as opportunity to run the business and be profitable.
Playing as an agent of other big business.
As her business is located in about center of the dzongkhag it is in the advantage side to be the agent of the other big companies and supply goods on locality. Since Mrs. Kencho mainly deals with supplying of various goods, she is agent of Bhutan Beverages Company, coca cola factory and so on. So she has a maximum opportunity to earn maximum profit as being an agent the big factory where they get ordered product at lower than marked price.
In the nutshell it is said, regardless of the current size of your business, its best to plan and structure so that you are ready for the future. Therefore Mrs. Kencho Tshomo wants to boost her sales through increasing productivity and also wants to expand the size of the business as her business falls under category of small scale business. Moreover they are in the process of constructing three storied building nearby present house so that they can attract much more customer at her shop.
Conclusion
In the final analysis, to be a successful entrepreneur each and every one not only have to possess graduation and Ph.D. but also it is important to buildup good base and experience. Moreover being resilient is one of the main aspect of the business as success usually comes to those person who are too busy to be looking for it. Mrs. Kencho Tshomo has failed in her business many times but she never gave up trying therefore she is one of the successful business women in Lhuentse dzongkhag. So lastly to build a successful business, you must start small and dream big.
