It is said that if you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together. By the look of things in the country’s business landscape, many entrepreneurs are interested in going fast, notwithstanding that they still want to go far.

And that could be the problem with the small and medium enterprise (SMEs) sector, where solo-entrepreneurship thrives, especially among micro enterprises.

Flora Mutahi, founder and chief executive of Melvin Marsh International, the 30-year-old firm behind the Melvins Tea brand, describes this as ‘the alone syndrome’.