Motivations and mitigating business limitations in Scottish rural home-based businesses.

This paper details a qualitative exploratory study of rural home-based businesses. Little is known about the formation or operation of home-based businesses in rural areas despite their high incidence rate.in-depth cases are presented and, by employing a methodology designed to elicit rich narratives, the stories of eight participants are told. emergent themes include the motivations for and the realities of operating a rural home-based business, the importance of a contextual factors, and the use of technology.

Marketing in SMEs: the sales process of SMEs on the food and drink industry.

There would appear to be varied approaches to the sales process practiced by SMEs in how they go about locating target customers, interfacing with prospects and new customers, presenting the benefits and features of their products and services, closing sales deals and building relationships, and an understanding of what the buyers needs are in the seller-buyer process. Recent research has revealed that while entrepreneurs and small business owners rely upon networking as an important source of sales, they lack marketing competencies, including personal selling skills and knowledge of what is involved in the sales process to close sales deals and build relationships. Small companies and start-ups with innovative products and services often find it difficult to persuade potential buyers of the merits of their offerings because, while the products and services may be excellent, they have not sufficiently well-developed selling skills necessary to persuade their target customers.