Mere 5.0% of Employable Bulgarians Run Own Business
Only 5.0% of employable Bulgarians have their own business, Sofia News Agency (novinite.com) reported over the weekend, quoting the conclusions of a report by the Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency (BSMEPA).
The report puts Bulgaria's employable population at some two million.
The major problems facing local entrepreneurs are difficult access to financing and intercompany indebtedness, according to the report.
As much as 40% of local small companies operate in the sphere of services, it added.
One in four local companies has overdue payments to a supplier or a subcontractor, which occasionally leads to chain bankruptcies of several small companies.
Some 62% of the small companies in Bulgaria were set up with personal resources of their owner. About 27% of the companies have started operations on loans from relatives and friends. A fifth of the companies have a bank loan, working capital loan or an overdraft.
Only 3.0% of small companies - with a staff of up to 10 - have received EU funding, as they are most frequently put off by the amount of the required co-financing. For medium-sized enterprises, which have a staff of up to 250, this figure is about 25%, according to BSMEPA data.