Abstract:

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have an important place in all developing and developed economies. SMEs are among the most affected by financial fluctuations and adverse changes while they are in the most important position in the total number of enterprises and employment creation in Turkey. In this context, in SMEs which are frequently faced with financing problems, company owners face various difficulties in order to keep their companies alive, to create added value, to provide employment and to grow their businesses. It has been aimed with the study to reveal the financial problems experienced in the perspective of SME owners operating in Kars, their applications and attitudes towards these problems and to propose solutions to these problems. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 40 SMEs operating in 10 different sectors in Kars in accordance with the purpose of the study. The obtained data were interpreted with both quantitative and qualitative analyzes. As a result of the quantitative analysis, it has been determined that 67.5% of the owners / partners of the SMEs subject to the research had financial problems. On the other hand, while 82.5% were ranking their problems, their financial problems were first or second. As a result of qualitative analysis, it has been found that the financing problems of SMEs are the lack of equity, high interest rates, excess security deposits, difficulties in giving security, alternative financing methods and insufficient knowledge about institutions and organizations providing support to SMEs.

Keywords: