The concepts of small scale businesses has been an issue for debate as different individuals, nation and groups define it to suit their own systems and purposes.  Some authors define small scale business from the stand point of its relevance in the development of any economy.

However, The Central Bank of Nigeria Magazine defines small scale business enterprise in terms of the business annual turnover, which accordingly, must be less than N 500,000, the small scale industries established with capital investment totaling N 250,000, and staffed with between 50 and 150 employees qualify as small scale industries. Interestingly, the Nigeria Companies and Allied Matters Decree 1990 Section 376 characterized  small companies with the following:

1.    A private company limited by shares should be the business turnover for the year.

2.    The net assets value of the company is not more than N1 million or such amount as may be fixed by the commission.

3.    None of the members is an alien.

4.    None of its members of the company is a government agent and nominee.

5.    The directors of the company hold not less than 50% of the equity share capital of the company.

The confusion associated with the definition of small scale business can be reduced by de-emphasizing factors associated with monetary terms and speaking on general criteria. Thus small scale business can be summarized as having the following characteristics:

(i)           Likely to be a sole trader, partnership or print company.                     

(ii)          Likely to operate on only a single local site with a very few member of departments.

(iii)         Having independent management who are chief executives of the enterprise.

(iv)        Having small capital outlay and mainly furnished by the owners of the business.

(v)          The size is small relatively and services as a niche in the market.

Economic development of any nation is improved largely by its enterprising spirit. The characteristic emerges forth interplay of behavior and activity of entrepreneurs who with their small scale businesses constitute a vital sector in the economy of any nation (Okon, 2003).

A lot of small scale businesses and programmes were put together in other to promote the standard of living of a common man in our societies. The small scale business is one way through which an average Nigerian can be made self reliant. The importance of small  scale businesses in their potential for creating employment most of the businesses in this sector are labour intensive and collectively serve as a major source of employment opportunities.

Encouragement of small scale businesses can also help to correct the unhealthy in-balance in the rate of economic growth between the rural and urban areas which will mean an integrated rural development. This most certainly will aid in checking rural-urban migration.  The pioneering spirit that underlines our success as a nation will continue to flourish as long as the small business man remains the main stay of our economy and our society (Young, 1977).

This work will be better appreciated as we shall attempt an appraisal of the adoption of marketing and the indices of market performance of small scale enterprises in Abia State.

Market performance is the term used to measure the performance of an enterprise in relation to other enterprises in a particular industry or market. It is through market performance that we can be able to ascertain the growth rate, profitability, sales volume, market share, number of customers etc (Roger, 2004)

Market performance has always been of concern to small scale business in Nigeria in particular and the entire world at large. In recent times, lack of proper adoption of marketing and marketing concept has led to business failures. In Abia state, it has assumed greater dimension. Consequently, quite a lot of small scale enterprises have been forced out of business.

The analysis of strategic factors affecting market performance small scale businesses enterprises in Abia State in essence, the areas of the operation of this work are considered through some selected retailing and wholesaling business in relation to theme of this study in anticipation that this work will contribute towards locating the market performance metrics and tools; as well as problems of market performance of small scale businesses and providing possible solution to them.