ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this study was to find out the various strategies for meeting challenges of young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State. Eight research questions guided the study. The population for the study was five hundred and ninety-eight (598). Simple random sampling technique was used to select two hundred and thirty-nine (239) entrepreneurs, which were made up of young and old entrepreneurs. The instrument for data collection was the questionnaire. The following results were obtained among others: (1) young textile and clothing entrepreneurs establish the following kinds of textile and clothing establishments: bags production centres among others, (2) financial and support challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textiles and clothing establishments in Lagos State include lack of government policies that support young entrepreneurs, especially in the payment of bills, tax and property rates, among others, (3) manpower and skill acquisition challenges faced by young textile and clothing entrepreneurs in Lagos State include lack of managerial skills among others (4) infrastructural and facility challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State include the following: inadequate power supply among others (5) marketing and distribution challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State include problems in developing markets among others (6) social challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments include the following: Nigerian parents prefer their children going for a paid job than becoming self employed among other (7) influence of the various challenges on the young entrepreneurs and on their textiles and clothing establishments include the following: challenges that can affect the progress of the establishments can make young textile and clothing entrepreneurs to loss confidence in the business among other effects. (8) strategies for meeting these various challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textiles and clothing
establishments in Lagos state include the following: that government should provide financial support packages aimed at young entrepreneurs among many other strategies. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that conferences should be organised in favour of young entrepreneurs to help individuals in the society to know that these group of individuals are needed in the society if the economy is to be moved forward.
Background of the Study
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
An entrepreneur, according to Samson and Little (1998), is a person who organizes and manages a business undertaking, assumes the risk of failure or gains the benefit of success in the business. This implies that an entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. Clayton (2000) defined an entrepreneur as a person who starts and runs his or her own business. This means that an entrepreneur is one who is able to begin, sustain, and when necessary, effectively and efficiently dissolve a business entity. An entrepreneur is an ambitious leader who combines land, labour, and capital to create and market new goods or services. An entrepreneur being an ambitious leader often have strong beliefs about a market opportunity and organizes the available resources effectively to accomplish an outcome that changes existing interactions (Wikipedia, 2008). That means that an entrepreneur is someone who creates value by offering a new product or service.
Entrepreneurs are the heroes and heroines in the economic sphere. For this statement to be confirmed, Mkhize (2006) pointed out that it will be important to learn from countries that have a higher contribution by small businesses to their economic growth. Most young entrepreneurs own small business establishments, especially at the inception of the establishment. The small business sector, especially establishments owned by young entrepreneurs, contributes significantly in job creation and in the elimination of poverty. This is because entrepreneurs create jobs for themselves and for others by establishing new businesses. It is not only that an entrepreneur establishes a new business but also chooses to assume some risks, identifies business opportunities, gathers resources, initiates action and establishes organisation or enterprise to meet some demand or market opportunity (Onu 2006).
Considering the fact that entrepreneurs initiate actions, they are looked upon as innovators who make efforts to develop new technologies, new products and services, they also adapt the existing technologies to new uses. Although what a young innovator initiated could be small, Mkhize (2006) explained that the small business sector has an important role to play in the development and growth of the economy.
The youth, according to Wikipedia, (2009), is the period between childhood and adulthood, it is neither childhood nor adulthood, but rather somewhere in-between, and is described as the period of physical and psychological development from the onset of puberty to maturity and early adulthood. Youths who are also business owners are termed the young entrepreneurs. These group of individuals known as the young entrepreneurs could be in tertiary institutions or graduates of tertiary schools. They can also be college students who are business owners just like those pointed out in Jimenez (2008) that gathered together at the College Entrepreneurs’ Organisation (CEO) annual conference in Europe; but for the purpose of the present study, young entrepreneurs are the youths who constitute males and females who may or may not be educated (Onuka and Olaitan, 2007). They may or may not have acquired any entrepreneurship skills and their family backgrounds not withstanding; they are just the individuals reported in The Toronto Entrepreneur Mastermind Group (2009) to be between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, and are business owners.
Many textile and clothing establishments can be initiated by young entrepreneurs. Textiles, according to Encarta (2009), are raw materials like fibre or yarn used for making fabrics. Since Clayton (2000) stated that fibres are tiny strands that make up yarns, textiles are therefore cloth or fabric that is woven, knitted, or otherwise manufactured. Textiles are used to make up clothings. Clothing which means a covering for something can also be called clothes in a
collective sense. Clothes are things worn on the body as a cover for the body. According to Encarta (2009) all the garments, bed linen, and other articles that are washed when doing the laundry are also clothings. Textile and clothing skills are important in the establishment of different clothing and textile centres in Nigeria. Textiles and Clothing skills, according to Shaw (2003) include: working with hands, working with machines, quality work, critical thinking, time management, creativity, focusing, school skills– math, reading, science, and art, etc. All these skills are taught to individuals in different occupational training centres in Nigeria. These different skills are put to different uses by young entrepreneurs, who are good at innovations. They tend to convert these various skills into some reasonable textile and clothing establishments and earn their living from them. Textile and clothing establishments are businesses that can be initiated after acquiring skills that can lead to the use of fabrics to make up coverings either for the body or for other surfaces like beds. It is important to find out the different textile and clothing establishments that can emanate from the acquisitions of various textile and clothing skills in Nigeria. The knowledge of these will help the society to have an overview of what can be established from little skills acquired from the various clothing and textile occupational training centres in Nigeria.
If the economy of any nation can be improved, then more young entrepreneurs should be encouraged. The young people who are the future generation of every nation should be the target of every economic innovation needed in any country that expects an economic change. This is because of the reports of The Toronto Entrepreneur Mastermind Group (2009), where it was pointed out that young entrepreneurs have the talent, energy and fresh ideas to make a province grow and prosper, an investment on these individuals is an investment in the future. This is because they are the people who are still strong enough to execute some difficult tasks; they still have the zest and the zeal to
earn their living in life as long as there are no impediments and challenges on their way. This shows that challenges can hinder the progress of any business or discourage the continuation or establishment of that business. Considering this, Inegbenebor (2006) pointed out that once a business opportunity exists in an economy, entrepreneurs would normally emerge to take advantage of them provided there are no major impediments and challenges on their ways.
A challenge is a test of one’s abilities or resources in a demanding but stimulating undertaking (Mifflin, 2003). A challenge is a demanding or stimulating situation (Collins 2006 and Farlex clipart collection 2008), which leads to the combination of circumstances at a given time (Farlex clipart collection 2008). When something is said to be challenging, then that means that that thing is demanding effort, it can be a difficult job or idea (Kernerman
2008). Challenges are those things encountered while carrying out a particular task and which tends to deter the individual from progressing in the task. Young entrepreneurs in their effort to establish their own textile and clothing establishments discover that there are challenges or competitive situations that can affect such establishments. This is because challenges are common in every entrepreneurship endeavour. Wikipedia, (2008) explained this fact by stating that entrepreneurship is often difficult and tricky, and many new ventures fail with time, and so entrepreneurship is a challenge especially to young textile and clothing entrepreneurs.
There are certainly problems, challenges and risks associated with owning and operating ones own business. These challenges facing young entrepreneurs could be problems with finance and support, manpower and skill acquisition, infrastructure and facility, marketing and distribution, and, social problems. Of course, it is clear that youths in Nigeria are faced with daunting challenges which are sociological in nature because they emanate from young entrepreneurs relationships with other individuals in their environment. When something is sociological, Answers Corporation (2009) explained that that thing
pertains to the interaction humans have with one another, either as individuals or in groups. This makes the social challenges faced by young textiles and clothing entrepreneurs to be problems encountered by these individuals as they relate with themselves and with other individuals in their environments. These numerous challenges can lead to loss of investments in business establishments, which is why Inegbenebor (2006) stated that entrepreneurs bear the risk of loss of their investment arising from the uncertainties with business operations.
In order to reduce the various challenges faced by young entrepreneurs, it is important to identify those various challenges they face as entrepreneurs. Some of these challenges may be encountered because of their age, some are risks or challenges that sometimes cannot be prevented or insured against but must be borne by the young entrepreneur. Some of them are challenges that must be encountered in order to establish the business, some must be encountered in the running of the business and some are needed in order to thrive in the business. Considering these challenges, there is need for proper encouragements to be given to young textile and clothing entrepreneurs in Nigeria. According to Mkhize (2006), lack of encouragements does not encourage new start-ups or growth of existing enterprises; it kills them, and so care should be taken in handling the challenges of young textile and clothing entrepreneurs in Nigeria so that more textile and clothing entrepreneurs can be encouraged in the society.
The issue at hand is not just to stop these risks or challenges faced by these young entrepreneurs but to identify some strategies that can help this group of individuals to face those various challenges that can not entirely be eradicated or avoided in the running of the establishment. Mkhize (2006) stated that it is important to deliberate on challenges faced by youth in the following areas and develop strategies to address them: access to finance, access to markets, youth entrepreneurship support and promotion, institutional mechanisms for youth
economic empowerment. The challenge of this study is for the strategies identified to be able to provide guidelines and frameworks to address the constraints faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments. These strategies will help to reduce the effects of these challenges on the young entrepreneurs and on their textile and clothing establishments so that they can be encouraged to continue in their businesses. It will also help them to thrive and therefore encourage other young people to look for textile and clothing skills to acquire that can help them to establish their own textile and clothing businesses in the Nigerian society.
Statement of the Problem
Unemployment according to Okorie, (2000) is a serious problem in Nigeria. The number of people depending on the Nigerian government for employment continues to be on the increase by each passing year. This had led to the moral decadence of the Nigerian society because individuals who are willing to work do not have works to do. Unemployment has profound effects at all ages, but Hartley (1992) explained that the implications are particularly significant for young people, because they are at a point in their lives where issues of identity, differentiation from parents, sense of self and autonomy are paramount. The overall effect is an increased level of frustration in the population which leads to an increased rate of crime (Britt 1994). These crimes include prostitution, armed robbery and other vices which unemployed youths get involved in. This is why there is need for the establishment of industries and companies that will help to employ the youths and check the vices existing in the nation.
It is important that other individuals should establish their personal businesses so that more people can get employment in Nigeria and so individuals, especially young people should be encouraged to go into entrepreneurships in Nigeria. Despite all the emphasis laid on entrepreneurships
in Nigeria, there are few incentives given to young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments. An evidence of such lack of incentive was reported in Jimenez (2008) explaining that young student entrepreneurs often have their attention divided between paying their bills, running a business and getting an education, and most times the student abandons education in order for the business to grow. This is because a student entrepreneur that realised that the business needs more attention must have to drop one of those engagements (Jimenez 2008). This is one of the great challenges faced by young entrepreneurs, both males and females, which include those in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State.
There are cases of lack of supports from parents and peers of young textile and clothing entrepreneurs. According to Begawan (2009) peer pressure and the lack of support from parents due to the ‘government job’ mindset are also challenges which young entrepreneurs face, leading to many shelving their business plans in early stages to pursue careers in the public sector. There are also cases of young entrepreneurs who ventured to start despite the lack of supports from parents and peers but ended up not having access to finance for their textile and clothing establishments. According to Entrepreneurial Student Association (2006), young people lack good access to the capital that is needed to start new ventures, and lack experience in venture funding; and Begawan (2009) stressed that financing was part of the challenges faced by young entrepreneurs especially when they have hidden potentials in their businesses. Begawan (2009) also reported that banks which offer finance need collateral that young and fresh graduates do not have these capabilities. All these and more cases of challenges faced by young textile and clothing entrepreneurs can hinder the progress of their establishments. They can also lead to the closure of their textile and clothing establishments. This is why it is imperative that the challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishment are identified and strategies identified to meet those various challenges.
Purpose of the Study
The major purpose of this study was to find out the challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State, and identify strategies for meeting those challenges.
Specifically the study identified the following in Lagos State:
1. Various kinds of textile and clothing establishments owned by young entrepreneurs,
2. Financial and support challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments,
3. Manpower and skill acquisition challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments,
4. Infrastructure and facility challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments,
5. Marketing and distribution challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments,
6. Social challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments,
7. Influence of these various challenges on young entrepreneurs and on their textile and clothing establishments,
8. Ways of meeting these various challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments.
Significance of the Study
The results of this study will help to reveal the various kinds of textile and clothing establishments that are owned by young entrepreneurs in Lagos State. The study will help to expose the challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments. It will also identify strategies for meeting those challenges.
The results of this study will be highly beneficial to young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments. The reason is that the strategies identified will help to reduce, if not eliminate the challenges they face as young entrepreneurs in Nigeria. This will also help them to make progress in their establishments.
It will also be beneficial to parents who are burdened with the task of financially and socially supporting their children who are not working. It will also reduce the support of parents on their children who happen to be facing different challenges in their textile and clothing establishments. This is because when the challenges faced by these young entrepreneurs are reduced or even eliminated, the young entrepreneur begins to make progress. When this is achieved, the supports given by parents are reduced or eliminated entirely.
The result of the study will also be highly beneficial to the Nigerian educational system. This will be possible when the identified strategies are inculcated into the teaching-learning situations in schools they will help to equip more young entrepreneurs with skills that can help to encourage them go in for entrepreneurships. It will also equip them with the knowledge on how to tackle different challenges that can arise as they establish their own businesses in order to thrive in such establishments.
The result of the study will also be beneficial to the Nigerian society, because textile and clothing establishments owned by young people will begin to be successful. More young people will also be encouraged to establish their own textile and clothing establishments. This will help to encourage industrialisation of the country and improvement of the national economy.
Research Questions
The study was guided by the following research questions:
1. What kinds of textile and clothing Establishments are owned by young entrepreneurs in Lagos State?
2. What are the financial and support challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State?
3. What are the manpower and skill acquisition challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State?
4. What are the infrastructure and facility challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State?
5. What are the marketing and distribution challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State?
6. What are the social challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State?
7. What are the influences of these various challenges on young entrepreneurs and on their textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State?
8. What are the ways of meeting these various challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State?
Research Hypotheses
The following hypotheses guided the study and were tested at 0.05 levels of significance.
1. There will be no significant difference between the challenges faced by young female entrepreneurs and young male entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State.
2. There will be no significant difference between the challenges faced by young university graduate entrepreneurs and young non-university graduate entrepreneurs in textile and clothing establishments in Lagos State.
3. There will be no significant difference between the challenges faced by young entrepreneurs who took courses in business and entrepreneurships and those that did not acquire such trainings.
4. There will be no significant difference between the challenges faced by young entrepreneurs whose parents are textile and clothing
entrepreneurs and those whose parents are not.
Delimitations of the Study
This study sought to find out the various kinds of textile and clothing establishments owned by young entrepreneurs in Lagos State. It also found out the various challenges faced by young entrepreneurs in such establishments. Also the influences of such challenges on young entrepreneurs and on their establishments in Lagos State were also sought.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
STRATEGIES FOR MEETING CHALLENGES OF YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS IN TEXTILE AND CLOTHING ESTABLISHMENTS IN LAGOS STATE
PROJECTS TOPICS Support Team Are Always (24/7) Online To Help You With Your Project
Chat Us on WhatsApp » 09069999843
DO YOU NEED CLARIFICATION? CALL OUR HELP DESK:
09069999843 (Country Code: +234)
YOU CAN REACH OUR SUPPORT TEAM VIA MAIL: projectstopics1@gmail.com
09069999843 (Country Code: +234)