12/29/11

Is necessity-based entrepreneurship even entrepreneurship?

In some cases entrepreneurship is the only option for livelihood. This takes often place in factor-driven economies. In more developed countries the necessity can be dictated by the profession itself or by the location. However, in cases where an individual is "aided" to become an entrepreneur and the former employer makes him/her to work solely for the former employer at the set prices, the question remains: is that really entrepreneurial activity?

That's what professors Ulla Hytti and Jarna Heinonen are discussing in Helsingin Sanomat. Read the article here.

12/23/11

Awarded paper "Who are you calling old?"

Researchers at TSE Entre, Dr Teemu Kautonen and Ewald Kibler, together with their colleagues Dr Thomas Wainwright and Professor Robert Blackburn of Kingston University (UK), were awarded a best paper prize at the recent Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) research conference in Sheffield (UK) (track: Business creation, resource acquisition and business closure). The paper entitled 'Who are you calling old? Revisiting notions of age and ability amongst older entrepreneurs' addresses the experiences of individuals who have started a business in London when aged 50 or over.

The paper emerged as part of Dr Kautonen's Academy of Finland funded project on older entrepreneurship. The full paper is available at: http://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/21480/

12/22/11

New publications

Heinonen, Jarna - Hytti, Ulla - Kautonen, Teemu - Bögenhold, Dieter (2011) Porkkanaa, ei keppiä! Tyytyväisyys pitää työelämässä, Teoksessa: Työstä, jousta ja jaksa: Työn ja hyvinvoinnin tulevaisuus, Toim. Petteri Pietikäinen, Gaudeamus, pp. 133-140.

Heinonen, Jarna - Hytti, Ulla - Stenholm, Pekka (2011) The role of Creativity in Opportunity Search and Business Idea Creation, Education + Training, Vol. 53, No. 8/9, pp. 659 – 672.

Akola, Elisa – Hytti, Ulla – Stenhom, Pekka (2011) ”Vastavirtaan kulkijat” : Tutkimus maaseudun kasvuyrityksistä. Turun kauppakorkeakoulu, TSE Entre, Sarja A tutkimusraportteja A2/2011.
Raportin tilaukset kristiina.baarman(a)utu.fi. Hinta 17 € + postituskulut.

12/16/11

The atmosphere for entrepreneurship is changing?

According to latest barometer published by Avainlippu.fi, the desirability of entrepreneurship has declined and less and less Finnish individuals have intentions for entrepreneurship. The results indicate that less than 1/3 Finnish adults eager for entrepreneurship. However, still over 40% of studied individuals see that Finland is good place to start business venturing.

A positive note is that young adults, 15-24-years old, have more positive attitude towards entrepreneurship than their older peers. These attitudes are dictated by the usual set of issues--freedom, independence and opportunity to effectuate him-/herself.

The findings are based on a sample of 1.088 Finnish nascent entrepreneurs.

[avainlippu.fi]

11/20/11

Biannual Nordic Conference on Small Business Research 2012

The NCSB 2012 will continue its tradition but also widen the perspective to more interdisciplinary areas following the so called "Aalto Spirit". Even if the name of the Conference refers to Nordic countries contributors and participants from all over the world are warmly welcome. The objective of this 17th Nordic Conference on Small Business Research is to foster the exchange of ideas and to introduce the research findings in the different fields of small businesses and entrepreneurship.

One purpose of the Conference is to create links between university scholars and practitioners. We would like to welcome papers for example in the following fields:
  • Identification and development of opportunities
  • Innovations and commercialization processes in SMEs
  • Family businesses and habitual entrepre­neurship
  • Growth and performance of SMEs
  • Entrepreneurial finance and venture capital
  • International entrepreneurship
  • Networking and cooperation in SMEs
  • Design thinking and entrepreneurship
  • Modernization and diversification in SMEs
  • Strategies in SMEs
  • Theoretical and methodological issues in studying SMEs
  • SMEs and Entrepreneurship policy
  • Gender and diversity in SMEs and entrepreneurship
  • Sustainability and entrepreneurship
  • Social entrepreneurship

11/18/11

Start-up rates begin to show signs of slowdown in most OECD countries in 2011

OECD's brand new numbers indicate that start-up rates are once again beginning to show signs of a slowdown across the member countries.

As start-ups are an important source of job creation in OECD economies. At the height of the global economic crisis, start-up rates fell precipitously in all OECD countries where data is available. In subsequent quarters, start-up rates began picking up, toward pre-crisis levels, but in recent quarters this momentum appears to have stalled. The most notable exception is Australia, where start-up rates continued to grow in the first and second quarter of 2011. A similar but less robust trend is evident in Norway. Start-up rates in Spain were also marginally up in the second quarter of 2011, but the overall rate remains at crisis levels. Rates in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States all showed signs of a slowdown in the first and second quarter of 2011.

How to gain more high-impact entrepreneurs in your country

Our (Stenholm, Acs, Wuebker) forthcoming paper (@JBV) put in one slide:

http://rwuebker.tumblr.com/post/12930338014/if-i-prepare-a-talk-about-a-paper-its-gonna-be

Current version of the paper "Exploring Country-Level Institutional Arrangements on the Rate and Type of Entrepreneurial Activity" is viewable at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1639433.

A country-by-country look at how entrepreneurship works in some countries

By Inc. Magazine.

http://www.inc.com/ss/global-entrepreneurship-week-facts#0

11/14/11

GEW kicks off, Finland is out

Nothing to brag about this year. This could have been easily avoided but no... At least I didn't active anything.
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2011 kicks off in 123 countries engaging more than 10 million current and aspiring entrepreneurs worldwide. During one week each November, GEW inspires people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. These activities, from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings, connect participants to potential collaborators, mentors and even investors—introducing them to new possibilities and exciting opportunities.



[http://www.unleashingideas.org/]

TSE Entre's Nordic Tour Fall 2011

Five of us will be arriving to Bodo, Norway, later this week. TSE Entre's crew is participating in the RENT 25th Annual Conference. The conference's preliminary talks will be broadcasted online:

Thursday November 17th: http://www.serialive.com/watch.php?id=42149
0900 - 0920 (CET) Welcome and Opening Plenary Session
Principal Pål Pedersen, University of Nordland
Prof. Thomas Cooney, President of ECSB
Chair: Prof. Odd Jarl Borch, UiN

0920 - 1030 (CET) Academic “Talk show” Theme: Entrepreneurship Research in Europe in Times of Crisis: What is the Future?
Prof. Sara Carter, Strathclyde University
Prof. Johan Wiklund, Syracuse University
Prof. Paul Westhead, Durham University
Moderators:
Prof. Lars Kolvereid, University of Nordland
Senior Res. Elisabet Ljunggren, Nordland Research Inst.

Friday November 18th: http://www.serialive.com/watch.php?id=42152

0830 - 0920 (CET) Keynote speech: Entrepreneurship, Business and Society
Prof. Shaker A. Zahra, University of Minnesota
 

11/11/11

In the US millennials see entrepreneurship as path to success, but are delaying because of the economy

Kauffman Foundation launched results on millennials' perceptions on entrepreneurship: In a beleaguered economy, the country (USA) needs entrepreneurs – the nation's job creators. Fortunately, a recent poll shows that the so-called millennial generation – those ages 18-34 – are an entrepreneurial bunch. A few key barriers are holding them back, especially the economy. The nationwide cell phone and landline survey, conducted by the Young Invincibles in conjunction with Lake Research Partners and Bellwether Research and funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, polled 872 millennials on their thoughts about the economy and entrepreneurship.

Read more.

Is this also happening in Finland? The hype around startups and entrepreneurship societies let's you expect something else but on the other hand that sample is slightly biased.

11/10/11

EURAM 2012

EURAM 2012 conference which will be held in Rotterdam next June, will have a track for Entrepreneurship Studies. Brilliant! Track is called "Shaping the Entrepreneurship Research Agenda" and track chairs are welcoming contributions that cover issues like:
  • Use novel approaches from other correlated disciplines (psychology, sociology, anthropology etc.),
  • "Export" entrepreneurship models to other discipline to gain insights to develop new theories for the entrepreneurship field
  • Employ novel or new combinations of the already known methodologies,
  • Test unexplored relations which have yet to receive thorough attention,
  • Utilize new units of analysis or datasets,
  • Compare different national European and non-European realities,
  • Contextualize findings through “environmental” circumstances in either national or international setting.
See this flyer for closer info.

This is how we roll

Sorry, it's in Finnish only. Notes from yesterday's Research Seminar.

11/8/11

Finnish fast growth 50

Now it's out again, Deloitte's list of Finnish fast growth firms in tech industries. Yes, that breed is present in Finland, too, even if you don't expect it. Deloitte defines fast growth firms based on the average growth in turnover during the last five years.

This year nr 1 is Eniram Oy (insane growth of 6209%) which focuses on advanced decision support systems to the owners and operators of large commercial vessels. Eniram was followed by SLM Finland Oy (5146%, software and www-projects) and Analyse² (2630 %, products and services for utilising customer information and market trends). Deloitte's guys are also pleased with the fact that greentech business are now more prevalent than earlier even if their total number in the top 50 is still possible to be improved.

Here's the top 10 (based on 5 year's average growth):
  1. Eniram Oy (6209 %)
  2. SLM Finland Oy (5146 %)
  3. Analyse² (Analyse Solutions Finland Oy) (2630 %)
  4. Retail Logistics Excellence – RELEX Oy (2015 %)
  5. Klikkicom Oy (1826 %)
  6. Priorite Oy (1707 %)
  7. Endero Oy (1106 %)
  8. Confidex Oy (1083 %)
  9. Sympa Oy (1010 %)
  10. Hibox Systems Oy (923 %)
They also list Rising stars -list which covers firms which have operated 3-5 years and which generated at least 50 000 € during the first year in operation. Here's top 5 Rising stars (based on 3 year's average growth):
  1. Proactum Oy (359 %)
  2. Aito Technologies (236 %)
  3. Vincit Oy (218 %)
  4. Infigo Finland Oy (212 %)
  5. Alekstra Corporation (125 %)

11/2/11

Nordic Entrepreneurship Conference, Helsinki

Hmmmm... due to sudden changes in my health status I wasn't able to attend this conference organized by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy and the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Their website says that the event "was intended for Nordic growth entrepreneurs and developers, researchers, civil servants and trainers specialising in growth entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. Speeches, thematic panels and other discussions seeked answers and best practices in facing the common challenges of growth entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education."

But no worries...conference presentations can be found from here.

10/28/11

Research seminar is postponed from 4.11 to 9.11 and from LS08 to OP-Pohjola

TSE Entre will organize a research seminar in Entrepreneurship on Wednesday 9.11.2011. At the first seminar you have an opportunity to hear and discuss about results from the Academy of Finland research project (WORK-program):

”Entrepreneurship, work and well-being in the life course perspective”

Research seminar provides information on the main aims of the research project and the survey-based dataset collected among highly educated professionals in Finland. Thereafter, the main findings of articles submitted for review (1 and 2), and preliminary ideas of work-in-process papers are presented and discussed (3 and 4).

1. Determinants of job satisfaction for self-employed and salaried professionals
2. Job satisfaction and retirement age intentions: self-employed versus salary earners
3. Life and job satisfaction among entrepreneurs and employees during the life course
4. “Spillover from work domains onto life satisfaction” (preliminary title)

Presenters: TSE Entre // WORK project research team (Heinonen, project leader, Akola, Hytti, Kautonen, Luomala)

Time: Wednesday 9.11.2011 at 13–15:30

Location: Turku School of Economics, lecture hall OP-Pohjola

Welcome!

10/25/11

Startups, startups...

Morning news show's story (in Finnish) on the current trend. Startups run over entrepreneurship. Hah.

Finnish Entrepreneurship Review

Now it's out. The annual Entrepreneurship Review (by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy) overviews the trends in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activity in Finland. The following is taken from the Summary:

According to an estimate, a total of around 270.000 enterprises were active in Finland at the end of 2010, excluding primary production enterprises. At present, the number of enterprises is experiencing a slight upswing. There were nearly 50 enterprises per 1.000 people in Finland at the end of last year. The number of start-ups began to increase, and the number of enterprises that terminated their operations reduced markedly compared to the previous year.

The percentage of SMEs (with less than 250 employees) from the enterprise population was 99.8%. Micros with less than ten employees accounted for 93.4 per cent of all SMEs, and the majority of micro-enterprises employed less than two people (calculated on the basis of one year of employment). Finland had more than 600 large enterprises with a staff of at least 250.

At the end of 2009, the total number of entrepreneurs in Finland was approximately 248.000, excluding those in the agriculture and forestry sectors, i.e. ten per cent of employed people. Of these, 62 per cent were self-employed. At the end of 2009, there were some 82.000 female entrepreneurs, constituting one-third of all entrepreneurs.

Report (in Finnish) can be downloaded from here.

10/19/11

TSE Entre's latest Bulletin

TSE Entre's long-term investment on entrepreneurship research yields desired outcomes: a doctoral thesis, a Collegium researcher´s position in the Institute of Advanced Studies within the University of Turku, a membership of the editorial board of the esteemed entrepreneurship journal, and quality publications.

Here you go.

10/17/11

Spot on

Steve Blank is again at it. Top points from the summary of his recent visit in Finland.

Toxic Business Press and Contradictory Government Incentives
Unique to Finland with its strong cultural emphasis on equality and the redistribution of wealth is a business press that doesn't understand startups and is overtly hostile to their success. Instead, the business press dumped on the founders for "selling out."... In 2010 it got worse, with an Act in parliament about the Monitoring of Foreigners' Corporate Acquisitions. Many founders mentioned this as a reason not to incorporate or grow their companies in Finland.

Nokia as "He Who Must Not Be Named".
..Nokia was Finland's symbol of national competence. Most Finns take their failure as a personal embarrassment. (Note to Finland -- lighten up. Nokia was blind-sided in a classic disruptive innovation. 50 percent the fault of a Nokia management that didn't see it coming, while 50 percent was due to brilliant Apple execution.) Ultimately, Nokia's difficulties will turn out to be good news for Finnish entrepreneurs. They've stopped hiring the best talent, and startups are not looking so risky compared to large companies.

Nanny Culture, Lack of Risk Taking, Not Sharing
...There's a safety net in almost every part of one's public and private life--health insurance, free college tuition, unions, collective bargaining, fixed work hours, etc. And what's great for the mass of society--a government safety net verging on the ultimate nanny state--makes it impossible to fail. There isn't much of a killer instinct among the masses... By nature, Finns are not good at tolerating risk. This gets compounded by the cultural tendency not to share or talk in meetings, sometimes to the point of silence. This is a fundamental challenge in creating an entrepreneurial culture... 

Lessons Learned II
  • Finland is trying to engineer an entrepreneurial cluster as a National policy to drive economic growth through entrepreneurial ventures
  • They've gotten off to a good start with a start around Aalto University with passionate students
  • Startup incubators, business angels and VCs are starting to emerge
  • The country needs to figure out a long term privatization strategy for Venture investing
  • Finnish culture makes risk-taking and sharing hard
More from this link.

GEM news

Want to see how your country's entrepreneurial climate compares to others in the region? You can access a wealth of key GEM indicators and download custom spreadsheets via our Public Data Interface:

http://gemconsortium.org/about.aspx?page=gem_datasets


[source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor]

Fear the Boom and Bust

10/14/11

"A government that's trying to help, but gets in the way"

Make a wild guess of which country Steve Blank (the author this post's topic) is writing about...

Are we really eager to enhance entrepreneurship in Finland?

One case, one opinion, but quite disturbing if you remember that Finnish citizens have one of the lowest rates of entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial activity among innovation-driven economies.

Entrepreneurship visa in Finland...

10/12/11

Research seminar in Entrepreneurship

TSE Entre will organize a research seminar in Entrepreneurship on Friday 4.11.2011. At the first seminar you have an opportunity to hear and discuss about results from the Academy of Finland research project (WORK-program):

”Entrepreneurship, work and well-being in the life course perspective”

Research seminar provides information on the main aims of the research project and the survey-based dataset collected among highly educated professionals in Finland. Thereafter, the main findings of articles submitted for review (1 and 2), and preliminary ideas of work-in-process papers are presented and discussed (3 and 4).

1. Determinants of job satisfaction for self-employed and salaried professionals
2. Job satisfaction and retirement age intentions: self-employed versus salary earners
3. Life and job satisfaction among entrepreneurs and employees during the life course
4. “Spillover from work domains onto life satisfaction” (preliminary title)

Presenters: TSE Entre // WORK project research team (Heinonen, project leader, Akola, Hytti, Kautonen, Luomala)

Time: Friday 4.11.2011 at 13–15:30

Location: Turku School of Economics, LS08 (at Mercatori)

Welcome!

Hub is coming...

http://hubturku.wordpress.com/

10/5/11

Wohoo Finland, Wohoo!

Richard Florida et al. just launched new Global Creativity Index (download the report here). The Global Creativity Index ranks 82 nations on Technology, Talent, and Tolerance (the critical “3Ts” of economic development). The index is a broad composite measure based on key measures of technology (R&D investment, researchers, and patents per capita), talent (educational attainment and the creative class) and tolerance (the treatment of immigrants, racial and ethnic minorities, and gays and lesbians).

To start with, Finland is relatively prevalent (nr. 1) in the rankings based on pure R&D figures.
"Finland takes the top spot overall, ranking first in researchers, third in R&D investment, and fourth in innovation. Home to Nokia and many innovative small firms, Finland is an acknowledged leader in innovative communications technology." (p. 6)

What comes to the Talent Finland is kicking strong and is also ranked nr. 1 among the 82 nations. This is mostly because of high attendance in tetriary education in Finnish population. Finland's worst result is related to the Tolerance. Finland is ranked only 19th basically due to low acceptance of racial and ethnic minorities as well as gays and lesbians. Based on the Florida's approach this is an important proxy for creativity. Accordingly, Finland is ranked "only" third in the Global Creativity Index even if two "T"s are highly prevalent in Finland.

Importantly, the association between the Global Creativity Index based on 3T's and entrepreneurial activity is pretty high and thus, it makes sense to assess the role of 3T further.

Who's with me?

9/14/11

Latest Finnish GEM report

At last. Finnish GEM report for 2011 was published about two weeks ago. Here's the link.

But here you have some main findings (quick and dirty version):

1. Early-stage entrepreneurial activity is now higher than during the recession. Now 5.7 % of the adult population is involved in early-stage entrepreneurial activities. This means that every month on average roughly 16.100 Finnish adults are engaged in early-stage entrepreneurship.

2. The overall entrepreneurial activity, measuring the share of Finnish adult population involved in either early-stage entrepreneurial activity or established business ownership, is 15.1 % in 2010. That's second highest among the Nordic countries and 8th among innovation-driven economies. Awesome!

3. More and more individuals in Finnish adult population recognize business opportunities. Even if the active engagement in starting up new businesses is still low, over half of the Finnish adult population has recognized business opportunities. However, only 6 % of the adult population had actual intentions to start up a business within three years. This share is the lowest among the Nordic countries and among the lowest in innovation-driven and all GEM countries. Guys, this sucks!

4. In 2010 about 3 % of the Finnish adult population acted as a business angel by providing funds for early-stage entrepreneurial activity during the past three years. The share is low compared to the other GEM countries. What's the news here???

5. The share of highly innovative early-stage entrepreneurial activity in Finland is clearly lower than the average in innovation-driven economies. Finnish new entrepreneurs manage only rarely to introduce products and services, which are new to all customers and do not meet direct competition. No wonder that with the measures Finland is ranked as the lowest among Nordic countries, and as second lowest among innovation-driven economies. Are we happy with this???

6. Finnish rate of high-growth oriented entrepreneurs is clearly lower than in other Nordic countries. In 2002–2010 approximately 5.5 % of every early-stage entrepreneurially active individual has had high growth expectations. The low growth expectations create challenges for the development of Finnish employment. Oh yeah?

7.The entrepreneurial activity among highly educated individuals has declined under improving economic circumstances. This implies about increase in the opportunity costs of entrepreneurship when the availability of other job options improves. The novel Global Entrepreneurship and Develop Index (thank you Zoltan Acs and Laszlo Szerb) further supports this disparity: entrepreneurial attitudes and culture are already opportune in Finland, but most capable individuals are not willing to become entrepreneurs. Hey all the entrepreneurship societies... you have some work to do.

8/20/11

Woo Hah

30 Most Memorable Fictional Entrepreneurs

1) Hank Rearden (Atlas Shrugged, steel magnate)
2) Milo Minderbinder (Catch-22, uses war for opportunity)
3) Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood, oil tycoon)
4) Jerry Maguire (Jerry Maguire, sports agent)
5) Mildred Pierce (Mildred Pierce, book/movie - working class mother of 2)
6) Willy Wonka (Chocolate Factory, owner and tour guide)
7) Homer Simpson (The Simpsons, multifaceted dad)
8) Charles Foster Kane (Citizen Kane, wealthy media magnate)
9) Tony Stark (Iron Man, weapons dealer & superhero)
10) Harold Hooper (Sesame Street store owner)
11) Maxine Lund (Being John Malkovich, co-founder of the experience Malkovich biz)
12) Stringer Bell (The Wire, real estate developer/dealer)
13) Fred and George Weasley (Harry Potter, owners of Diagon Alley shop & owl-order business)
14) Bree Van De Kamp (Desperate Housewives, self-sufficient housewife, Caterer &
Author of Mrs. Van de Kamp Recipes)

15) Rick Blaine (Casablanca, cafe owner)
16) Lorelai Gilmore & Sookie St. James (Gilmore Girls, managers of Dragonfly Inn)
17) The Once-ler (Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, entrepreneur)
18) Seymour Levov (American Pastoral, business owner)
19) Bill Henrickson (Big Love, owner of 3 wives & 2 stores)
20) Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett (barber and baker)
21) George Jefferson (The Jeffersons, owner of Jefferson Cleaners chain)
22) Calvin Palmer (Barbershop, owner)
23) Benjamin Horne (Twin Peaks, owner of Great Northern Hotel)
24) Yermolay Lopakhin (The Cherry Orchard, change agent)
25) Frenchy (Small Time Crooks, founder of Cookie business/bank robber)
26) Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz &
Egon Spengler
(Ghostbusters, founders)
27) Paul Dombey (Dombey & Son, wealthy shipping magnate)
28) Forrest Gump (Forrest Gump, founder of Bubba Gump Shrimp)
29) Julia Sugarbaker (Designing Women, interior design firm)
30) Tony Soprano (The Sopranos, mob boss extraordinaire)

 (Source: Inc. Magazine)

6/13/11

Index of Economic Freedom tells us that...

This year's Index of Economic Freedom (by Heritage) shows that institutions support doing business here, but there are some issues that continuously hurt Finnish economy and probably the growth-orientation among entrepreneurs (oh yes it yes dependent on other issues, too). In all, Finlad is 17th among 183 nations (just behind the UK) and about in the middle of all free economies.



IPRs are looking good, too:



But what do you know... Well, even if the relationship between labor freedom and low prevalence of high-impact entrepreneurs is not direct or simple, this figure suggests that the Finnish labor market is heavily charged by high non-salary costs of employment and burdensome labor regulations.

5/25/11

Flower power

4/4/11

They are getting older

Brand new statistics show that over the half of Finnish entrepreneurs are over 45 years old. Younger individuals still seem to dislike this kind of behavior. Figures published by the Statistics Finland show that the total number of entrepreneurs declined from 2008 to 2009 by over 3.600 individuals being now about 237.000. Among 18-24 years old we have 5000 entrepreneurs which is only 2.3 percentage of the total number of employed population at that age.



This numbers also include the farmers which causes a possibility of age-based bias if the numbers are compared internationally. This, though, partially explains the huge drop decline in the entrepreneurial population between 1990-2009.

[source: Statistics Finland]

3/25/11

Fallacies of Entrepreneurship

Jay Goltz had a brilliant posting about the beliefs on entrepreneurship in NYT's You're the boss blog. According to Golzt, there are eight delusions which are for some reasons for starting a business and for some others reasons not to follow that road. Here you go:

1. Any new business has a 50-50 shot at succeeding. Yes, according to the Small Business Administration, the failure rate of new businesses is around 50 percent after five years. That statistic ought to be scary enough, but the odds of your business succeeding may not even be that good. Some ill-conceived ventures have no chance of succeeding, and others may have a 75 percent success rate. It is not the flip of a coin. It is about execution and the need in the market place. With new ideas, it is obviously harder to predict. What do you think the failure rate is for opening a McDonald’s restaurant?

2. It’s all about finding the new thing. Most new businesses are in fact not big new ideas. We all read about the Groupons, but the vast majority of start-ups take an existing idea and try to do it better. Plenty of people have made fortunes this way.

3. Starting a business now offers more stability than holding a corporate job. While it’s no longer conventional wisdom that corporate jobs offer stability, any suggestion that going into business for yourself is a way to find stability is laughable. Maybe nothing is stable.

4. I want control of my own destiny! Can a phrase be an oxymoron? If it is your destiny, you don’t have control. That said, if you own your own business, you can say that you are responsible for yourself — for better and for worse. At its core, that is what being in business for yourself is really about.

5. I want to set my own hours! This might be the cruelest of them all. I’m sure that there are some business owners out there who have succeeded at working whatever hours they like. I am also sure that far more are working more hours than ever before — and many for less money, if any.

6. I’m going to start my business as soon as I raise the capital. We read about all of these new ventures, mostly high tech, that get start-up financing from venture capitalists. But the reality is, most new entrepreneurs get money from their own bank account, their parents, their 401(k) plans and anyone else they know. Sure, there are angel investors out there — but not nearly enough to go around. Banks don’t generally finance start-ups, and if they do, the loans are well collateralized. That means that if you fail, you lose the money in the form of your house or whatever you used for collateral.

7. Do what you do well and delegate the rest. It’s a nice theory. It has some truth to it. But the reality is that you need to know enough about everything — even if it’s just to be able to hire the right person and oversee that person. Many people, for example, want to have little to do with the accounting. And it’s possible that these people will get lucky and find someone who will completely take over their accounts, stay forever and do a wonderful job. Or not. If they don’t learn something about accounting, they may also find themselves bankrupt. Not a risk you should take. Know enough.

8. I’m tired of making money for other people. I really find this phrase offensive. Did you not get paid? Did you not make money? Are you really so critical to the profitability of the company that employs you? Get over yourself. There is no great nobility in being tired of making money for someone else. To me, you just sound like a disgruntled employee. If you start your own company and have employees, you may eventually be lucky enough to have people who will get tired of making money for you. I’m already tired of you. How about telling people that you’d like to go into business for yourself? Period. No further explanation needed.

3/24/11

Arrangements for entrepreneurship are ok, but...

In our interview on national GEM results in Kauppalehti magazine we continue the discussion about the lack of growth-oriented new entrepreneurs.

The results show that the prevalence Finnish early-stage entrepreneurs is continously lacking behind the rest of the world and other innovation-driven economies. Even if many barriers potentially inhibiting the engagement in entrepreneurial activities and growth are demolished in Finland, the whining is still loud and strong: "It costs too much, there is too much bureaucracy involved, etc." The worst case is when the institutional organizations amplify these messages. That simply sucks big time! However, on the hand those new entrepreneurs, who employ others, don't whine so much, and they dont' get squeezed by institutional forces.

So, the question remains how to make at least someone belonging in the former group more positive on everything. Being a mundane is fine and ok, but still some of them have brilliant ideas and surely someone has recognized kick-ass opportunities. Those are the chance, right?

Link to the story (in Finnish).

Again something else

Well this has (again) little less to do with entrepreneurship in Finland, but it's a brilliant idea.

3/7/11

Incentives lead to behavior, right?

Nokia, the former Finnish No 1, had their summer job ad on Sunday's paper. It was for summer trainees, but it was so highly pimped up that it was a bit funny. Or how this sound like for ordinary production line work with high likelihood for monotonically repeating of the same thing over and over again: "Are your the Nokia Future Talent?...As an OPERATOR you can show your skills in assembling wireless hand-held devices or packing finished product ready for sending to customers...you should be ready for working in four shifts...".

Sounds tempting?

Following this, today's post topic's short sentence has lot to say. Where are the incentives for entrepreneurship among younger Finnish adults? Why they won't try their wings by doing what they like to do and getting paid at the same time? Assuming that the liking in question is legal and something that someone is willing to pay for....

2/15/11

Pitching your team to South Korea

I'm currently sitting in the backrow of Merca square @ Turku School of Economics. I feel the vibe--the entrepreneurial vibe. At least 6 teams are about to pitch their business ideas with 4 slides in 4 minutes. Exciting!


Boost is kick-ass!!!

1/21/11

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

Greetings from Washington D.C.

The latest global report was published yesterday. Interestingly, among other issues it shows how the recession has affected entrepreneurial behavior across countries. This is shown basically in the change of the ratio between necessity and opportunity-based entrepreneurship. Necessity has risen in some countries, like Ireland.

As a positive note the GEM report tells us that "today, 250 million people between 18-64 years old are actively engaged in starting or running new businesses in 59 economies...". Nice. Report also shows that "63 million of these early-stage entrepreneurs expect to hire at least five employees over the next five years. 27 million anticipate hiring twenty or more people in newly created jobs." These are the important entrepreneurial individuals who actually contribute to the economic growth (or development depending on the phase of the economy). Unfortunately, there is continuous lack of them in Finland.

How to change the current state of affairs?

Get your GEM Global Report 2011 here.