RELEVANCE OF MARKETING STRATEGIES AND RECORD KEEPING FOR EFFECTIVE OPERATION OF SMALL SCALE BUSINESSES IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the relevance of marketing strategies and record keeping for effective operation of small scale businesses in Kaduna state, Nigeria. The study was motivated by the fact that most of small scale businesses in Kaduna State find it difficult to increase their sales volume and to survive in a competitive environment. Therefore, two (2) objectives, two (2) research questions and two (2) hypotheses were formulated in order to guide the researcher. The study adopted a survey research design in which questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. 144 small scale businesses were sampled from a total of 2,712 small scale businesses in the three senatorial districts of the State. The data obtained were analyzed using frequency count, mean score and standard deviation and the null hypotheses were tested using chi-square at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that marketing strategies and record keeping have relevance to effective operation of small scale businesses in Kaduna state. It was concluded that any small scale business lacking sound marketing strategies and proper record keeping is prone to untimely failure and weaken in chance of business survival. The study recommends that Small scale businesses should create and improve sound marketing strategy of their products so as to perk up the marketing effectiveness and efficiency in the competitive environment. Also, Small scale businesses should keep proper and adequate records of financial activities of the business so that profit and loss of business can be ascertained and the same time reduce the possibilities of early failure and increase chance of business survival.