The challenges of running a business in a rural area

Jonaville

Active member
We usually start a business to be able to serve the needs of our potential customers and at the same time using the profits to take care of ourselves too. However, starting a business in the rural areas has more challenges than its urban counterpart. This challenges can make running a business difficult and we might get discouraged to the point of giving up. Below are some of the challenges businesses face in rural areas. Feel free to add yours.

1. Underpopulation: when there are not many people around, how many customers can one have? Most likely just a few.
2. Low cost of living: Yes, the cost of living in rural areas is lower compared to the urban ones, this means your products or services will be bought/offered at lower prices.
3. Lack of banking services: In some rural areas, there is only one bank, in others there are none. So this makes it hard to manage finances. If POS services are available, they will charge high prices.
4. Inadequate basic amenities: Shortage of electricity, water, good housing system can make running a business stressful.
5. No good roads: if the roads are bad, mobility and transportation of products will be very difficult to carry out.
 

Abigael

Valued Contributor
Those are indeed the challenges that many businesses are facing in the rural areas. In my rural area, the population is a bit high and you will get market for your products. However, people are so low economically and so they bargain products and buy at cheap prices that cause a loss to the seller. Some are fond of taking things on debt and take time to pay back. Another challenge there is the bad roads. It makes it so hard to transport products from suppliers in town to the shops in rural areas.
 

Kennysplash

Verified member
We usually start a business to be able to serve the needs of our potential customers and at the same time using the profits to take care of ourselves too. However, starting a business in the rural areas has more challenges than its urban counterpart. This challenges can make running a business difficult and we might get discouraged to the point of giving up. Below are some of the challenges businesses face in rural areas. Feel free to add yours.

1. Underpopulation: when there are not many people around, how many customers can one have? Most likely just a few.
2. Low cost of living: Yes, the cost of living in rural areas is lower compared to the urban ones, this means your products or services will be bought/offered at lower prices.
3. Lack of banking services: In some rural areas, there is only one bank, in others there are none. So this makes it hard to manage finances. If POS services are available, they will charge high prices.
4. Inadequate basic amenities: Shortage of electricity, water, good housing system can make running a business stressful.
5. No good roads: if the roads are bad, mobility and transportation of products will be very difficult to carry out.
If you want to start a business in a rural area, you have to adapt the business to that setting. You should have weighed the pros and cons and determine how you will curb the cons. Still, the disadvantages are still numerous. One that I can add is illiteracy. This therefore can cause online absence. They know little about technology and how to use it, so you cannot reach the general public via the platform. You will have to base your business solely offline, and this can be a setback. So you must have considered these things first and decide if it is feasible.
 

Ahmedo24

Verified member
The factors mentioned by the poster of this thread are actually true but the fact remains that the level of competition in the rural areas is far low compared to the urban areas which is big advantage to whoever has foresight.
Underpopulation is not a big issue because you buy goods according to the size of your customer base and ensure you deal on fast moving commodities to increase your turn over. If the products are needed products they won't buy lower than what is been sold in the urban Because they will also take into consideration of the cost of transportation and convinency
 

Alexandoy

VIP Contributor
A business in the rural area should be appropriate for the residents. If your business is a jewelry shop then prepare to go bankrupt due to lack of customers. Your products should be a necessity or to be appreciated. A convenience store is welcome because the products that it sells are mostly food items and kitchen items – cooking oil and condiments that are important for cooking. I admit that a business is not easy to survive in the rural area especially when the residents are poor farmers but it can be done with the right type of business.
 

Peppul

Active member
The challenges you listed out there are good and most of the challenges faced when you are running your business in the rural area. Infact most people prefer to establish their business in the city to avoid these disadvantages but even at that some part of the city still experiences these. Most of the reasons why most people run from establishing their business in the rural area is because most people are money conscious and they believe that most people in the rural area won't be able to patronize their product due to the high value of their products. People in the rural area tend to offer low cost for product because most of the people living there are mostly poor or average people. So for your product to bring in more income you need more people willing to buy your products more and you can easily get them in the city.
 

Seyesystem

Active member
The challenges of running business in the rural is lack of infrastructure in terms of good power supply, access to good road and lack of exposure affect business in the rural area. Most especially lack of stable electricity makes most business in the rural area close down. Another problem may be drop in sales due to needs of the community may be different from what the business is offering. There are a lot of problems faced in the rural area when doing business.
 
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