Entrepreneurs plays an important role in the economic development of a country or region and it is quite common to find academic literature validating entrepreneurship. It facilitates the development of an area then having a broader effect as the enterprise matures.
For a new enterprise to form and have a chance of success, the following four elements are needed:
- ideas;
- capital;
- entrepreneurship; and
- infrastructure.
Thunderbird School of Global Management conducted a survey and revealed that that are several positive factors facilitating entrepreneurship that were common among many respondents regardless of regions.
The top 2 traits that had the highest frequency of mention. These two traits scored in the top three for the questions asked.
1. Government support for programs – Especially in terms of policies and incentives such as tax benefits
2. Positive image of entrepreneurship in the media – Both for supporting its image and for sharing success stories
Other traits that were mentioned:
3. Having a good infrastructure – Reduces friction and increase efficiencies. This includes a strong network and market readiness/opportunities/demand.
4. Having good educational programs and training – This should start as early as possible, both in school and in the family (exposure to entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ventures)
5. Being risk tolerant – An entrepreneur should have a realistic understanding of his or her ability and willingness to stomach large volatility in the value of his or her ventures.
6. Having good economic stability – A stable financial system efficiently allocates resources, assesses and manages financial risks, maintains employment levels close to the economy’s natural rate, and eliminates relative price movements of real and financial assets
7. Being self-motivated – If you are self motivated you will be able to grow yourself as an entrepreneur as well as be able to meet the demands of your clients.
8. Having role models and a strong entrepreneurial network – The more we study our role models, the better our own performance usually gets.
9. Have access to finance – Accumulated evidence has shown that financial access promotes growth for enterprises through the provision of credit to both new and existing businesses. It benefits the economy in general by accelerating economic growth, intensifying competition, as well as boosting demand for labour.
10. Having good ethics and transparency in business operations – Transparency is about information. It is about the ability of the receiver to have full access to the information he wants, not just the information the sender is willing to provide.
Elements must co-exist with the right “spirit”, such as infrastructure and access to education and networks, government attitude toward transparent business and support for these efforts locally and globally, and access to capital. However, it is even more difficult in countries and regions that have additional challenges such as corruption and corporate tax barriers. In these situations, creating the right educational programs that can move the entrepreneur forward would be a strong facilitator to success.
