Does financial education act as a catalyst for SME competitiveness?

Small and medium-sized enterprise plays a significant role in economic development by creating jobs, increasing wealth, and reducing poverty. The present study was conducted in the industrial area of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula (India). Data was collected from entrepreneurial and managerial classes of the SME sector through a questionnaire through direct personal investigation. The survey was conducted using the questionnaire's non-probability purposive sampling method. The findings indicate that financial education is the most significant factor affecting SME success, followed by access to financing, which considerably affects SME performance. The data suggests that financial risk has a negative effect on SME performance, although the impact is not statistically significant. Furthermore, the significance of a variable's power may be determined by examining whether the sample means fall within confidence intervals. SMEs should be well educated to access alternative funding channels to the banking system that provide feasible alternatives for accomplishing value creation objectives.