Central to this research was the need to explore and examine participants’ understanding of opportunities and challenges faced by small emerging funeral business. In response to the above, it was clear that there were more challenges than opportunities. One of the major challenges was the lack of financial support. As discussed earlier on, owners of parlour businesses find it difficult to access loans due to the way the business is perceived by financial institutions. In support of this view the statement reads:
Some of the banks, even if you can give them the statement of six months, they are not even sure, so the banks don’t trust us. Investors, I've never seen any investor looking at my door. I have been applying, they are not invested in this. When you look at business, it's exhausted because it has got many people that are joining this industry without even knowing what they are doing unfortunately. So we're not getting any investors, we are not popular to them and to the banks as well. There's no financial support for us. So it means this industry is not recognized as the business. So how can the investors come and invest into this business, while our black fellows don't trust this business? (A participant from KwaZulu-Natal).
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In addition and as discussed earlier on, the community’s mistrust is among challenges faced by small emerging funeral parlours in South Africa. Here mistrust is defined in line with consumer behaviour. It is argued that given that owners of funeral businesses has come from the same community, they are not given the same respect compared to those funeral parlours that are already established. To illustrate this position, the following statements from participants give a clear understanding of what mistrust means and how this affects funeral businesses, mainly small emerging funeral parlours in South Africa. The statement read:
That is what has been said before, we are these black people coming from disadvantaged areas and then we start businesses because we want to put food on our table as well and we are staying within those communities. That is where we stay. They see our day to day work, they see us coming, you know, so there are these big fish, if I may say, they are boasting about growth and development that they have in this industry now, you know, that makes us to be seen as people who are after money to benefit other than our clients, you know.
Secondly, our communities cannot trust us. If I’m funeral undertaker, you know, I don't have a car because I'm not financed; I don't have a proper office because I'm not financed; I don't have equipment sometimes because as I said before, if you can be treated as small businesses and not be given a chance to be small businesses by getting the support, you know. So, that is how our communities are not trusting us (A participant from Gauteng).
Furthermore, legislative process were identified to be among challenges faced by small emerging funeral parlours in South Africa. According to participants, there are numerous requirements and mostly the funeral parlour business is not considered as a small business like any other small business. As the statement bellow shows, it is apparent that small emerging funeral parlours face bureaucratic challenges. The statement reads:
When you go to the Department of Health, there is this problem of not having designation numbers. Some time ago it was 21st or 30th of
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October, 2016 if I can remember well, we wrote the test and we passed that test and we had to get the designation number, but at the same Department of Home Affairs because it's a national issue, they did not give us this businesses designation number. There are those small businesses that belong to certain associations and they do give them that designation number. In South Africa, the government is just imposing laws that are forcing us to do whatever they like. They really do not care about the progress and the system to be followed in our business. So that is the main problem we are having in this industry. For us to grow in this, we have to seek information by ourselves; You have to go from point A to point B by yourself, organizing and checking what you can do. (A participant from North West).
While bureaucratic processes seemed to be among the challenges faced by small emerging funeral parlours in South Africa, internal issues within the industry also played a critical role. It was discovered that despite participants pointing fingers at the government for failing them, they also recognised that there are shortcomings on how owners of funeral businesses run the business. In support of the above statements a direct quote from one of the participants reads:
I see that some of the people are talking about the cows and all those things and you don't have to promise someone with something that you do not have. Again, in the policies I decided to do not even to put money or promise people to give them money because I do not have money. Mostly, we promise something we do not have and then at the end of the day you do not fulfil what you promise to the family. That is some of the things that are killing us. Our colleagues here said that at least we have those skills and other support, but now at the moment we are running with our heads only. The way we were taught, it’s like I have to present myself in the office. That is the thing that is killing us. (A participant from Eastern Cape).
While there seemed to be more challenges, there were also promising prospects in the funeral parlour industry. It was apparent that despite the challenges faced by the small funeral parlour industry, owners continued to rely on it as source of income. This
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is evident from the number of years that participants have been in this business and the resilience they have shown throughout.
4.10. Relationship between managerial, marketing and financial skills in the