Gyeonggi Shinbo Publishes '2024 Small Business White Paper'... Challenges in Funding and Location Selection

Small business owners in Gyeonggi-do were found to have larger loan amounts as their business operation period lengthened. Additionally, early-stage small business owners faced difficulties with 'funding' and 'location selection.'

The Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation announced on the 25th that it had published the "2024 Gyeonggi-do Small Business Owner White Paper." The foundation explained that it deepened policy research and produced the white paper to effectively support small business owners struggling amid the economic downturn and uncertainty.

This white paper was created based on visit survey data collected from October to December last year, targeting 3,100 small business establishments (across 8 industries) within the province.

According to the white paper, 54.4% of early-stage small business owners (operating for 2 years or less) had loans, and while the loan holding ratio decreased as the operation period lengthened, the average loan amount tended to increase.

Cover of the "2024 Gyeonggi-do Small Business Owners White Paper" published by Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation on the 25th

In particular, businesses operating for more than 15 years had the highest average loan amount of 111.39 million KRW. This was analyzed to be due to the continuous need for financial support not only at the startup stage but also for business expansion and securing operating funds.

Furthermore, small business owners in Gyeonggi-do cited funding (64.5%) and location selection (62.7%) as the biggest challenges when starting a business.

Based on the survey results, the Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation plans to expand low-interest loans and special guarantees for early-stage small business owners, strengthen guarantee support to reduce rental burdens, and expand growth fund support for long-term operating businesses, implementing tailored support policies.

Additionally, it plans to further enhance consulting services for entrepreneurs to support business stability and continuous growth.

Moreover, through long-term panel surveys targeting the same businesses, the foundation will continuously analyze changes in small business owners and use this as a basis to further advance support services such as guarantees and consulting.

Si Seok-jung, Chairman of the Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation, said, "This white paper holds significant meaning as it accurately captures the management status of small business owners in Gyeonggi-do and serves as fundamental data for effective policy formulation and competitiveness enhancement. We will continue to build tailored analytical data by growth stage through ongoing surveys and white paper publications and develop more sophisticated support policies to expand success opportunities for small business owners."

The Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation will place copies of this white paper at its 27 branches across the province.