The nature of being an entrepreneur encapsulates the essence of fully embracing
opportunities and taking on new challenges and risks. Informal entrepreneurship is often
taken for granted and hardly recognised as being a profession. This study aims at
identifying the importance of entrepreneurship in the informal sector and the barriers that
these entrepreneurs face on a daily basis in South Africa. As part of the methodology, both
quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to analyse and interpret the data. Results
from the study indicated that most of the informal entrepreneurs are necessity driven rather
than opportunity driven and that some of the main barriers they face are crime, service
delivery and lack of vacant land and premises. Possible solutions to these barriers include:
providing areas for the entrepreneurs from which to operate and to make funding available
for expansion and growth of their businesses