In this paper, we will attempt to find answers to some questions on the factors that help make
small/informal enterprises perish or survive; what makes the survivors succeed and graduate
or stagnate and barely manage; what happens to the small entrepreneurs’ household over
time; if they manage to develop their enterprises and thus raise their families’ income as time
passes, or they remain, small, informal marginal entrepreneurs, with households stuck at the
lower end of income and wealth; and if the small and successful enterprise capable of raising
the household’s socio-economic status or do the poor households hinder the MSE from
growing steadily. The paper is divided into sections with an introduction that deals with the
methodology and the used panel data sets. Section two covers the changes that occurred to
the enterprises between 1998 and 2006. Section three focuses on the factors influencing the
success/ failure of small/informal enterprises. Section four discusses the entrepreneur’s
household status overtime. Section five deals with the relation between the enterprise growth
and the household’s graduation to a higher wealth status. The last section presents the main
conclusion and the policy implications.