Dear SME, Delegation Might Be Your Untimely Death

There are so many SMEs in Kenya. They account for 45.5 percent of Kenya’s GDP and employ about 86 percent of the population.

However, about 1000 SMEs are shutting down operations daily, 30,000 monthly and about 450,000 annually.

In most cases, when an SME fails, people blame it on the unfriendly business environment. Some blame inability to access funding.

But nobody rarely talks about the leadership and the management company of SMEs. Many SMEs are dying because of poor management skills by the owners.

Do begin with, does delegation of duties work for SMEs? Is it wise for an SME boss to be hands off everything and have complete trust in the team? No.

Those motivational speakers with no thriving company will tell you that delegation of duties is leadership. It is. Yes. But for an SME, it might just be your untimely death.

For an SME boss, your presence is key for the thriving of your business. You must be there. You must guide your team and you must understand your business model.

It is good to delegate some duties but leaving the running of the whole company to your team for good is dangerous and you might never know what hit you when it happens.

A good SME has a small team that works in harmony. Having a divided team that wants to pull in different directions will kill your business.

It is good to employ for experience than for merit. They are so many people with papers but with zero experience. Yet there are many others with zero paper but full of experience.

Among your team, have a leaders. Let this leader report directly to you and you as the boss must approve any decision to be taken.

Have a clear chain of communication. Let the communication flow in a manner that is respected and follows the tradition of the company.