Credit crisis hits women investors

Jun 30, 2009

WOMEN founded and run enterprises have been hard hit by the credit crunch, senior officials have said. Rosemary Mutyabule, the of strengthening women enterprises programme officer at Enterprise Uganda, a business development organisation, explained over t

By Ricks Kayizzi

WOMEN founded and run enterprises have been hard hit by the credit crunch, senior officials have said. Rosemary Mutyabule, the of strengthening women enterprises programme officer at Enterprise Uganda, a business development organisation, explained over the weekend that lack of customer retention skills had made women-run firms vulnerable to collapse.

“Because they have been sidelined for many years, women entrepreneurs lack sufficient skills to survive the storm of the credit drought, which could by and large be overcome by customer retention tactics,” she said.

She was closing a three-day training workshop on effective customer service at the Grand Imperial Hotel, Kampala. 29 participants from 25 small-and-medium enterprises were trained.

The $1m three-year project is funded by the Norwegian government. Since the programme, started in 2008, over 1,000 women entrepreneurs have been trained across the country.

Mutyabule said because of the growing tendency by people to spend only on essentials and save their cash for a rainy day, the line between wants and needs had been drawn, even among female consumers.

“Impulsive buying has been thrown out of the window. Beauty and cosmetics shops run by women entrepreneurs have fallen prey to the credit crunch and its repercussions,” she said.

She, however, pointed out that there were opportunities in the global financial meltdown, mentioning customer royalty, which is built on client confidence in the seller and products they sell.

These traits, she added, compel clients to always go back to such outlets. Another advantage, she added, was studying the market trends by investors, stock wisely and make long-term plans for advancement and sustenance of business.

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