AN EVALUATION OF BUSINESS SUPPORT SERVICES TO SMMEs IN THE FREE STATE

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to focus specifically on the Free State province, as to how the SMME policy intends to address the changes mentioned earlier (in the first paragraph) in the province and how the business support services assist in supporting and developing SMMEs in the province. This chapter begins by providing an overview of the SMME sector in the South African context. The chapter then gives a background of the SMMEs sector in the Free State, and problem statement follows thereafter. The chapter continues by providing the research objectives and questions, then data collection as well as the data analysis. The conceptualisation and layout of the study follows thereafter.