Small Business
  1. Home
  2. Business
  3. Small Biz
  4. Managing
  5. The Venture
Save
Print

Does the community value entrepreneurship?

Show comments

Is entrepreneurship a good career choice? No, found the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey, which ranked Australia a dismal 46th globally on perceptions of entrepreneurship as a viable career.

Only 54 per cent of Australian respondents in the 2016/17 GEM survey thought starting a business was a worthwhile career choice. That compared to 78 per cent in The Netherlands, 66 per cent in Canada and 64 per cent in the United States.

Up Next

How 457 visa changes are hitting start-ups

null
Video duration
02:27

More BusinessDay Videos

null
Video duration
02:27

How 457 visa changes are hitting start-ups
null
Video duration
02:12

Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Alibaba hit out at ...
null
Video duration
00:53

Amazon by the numbers
null
Video duration
01:54

Michael Pascoe: Building the future
null
Video duration
01:02

Turnbull talks tough on gas
null
Video duration
01:30

457 visas: PM's Australia-first rhetoric
More videos

The do's and don'ts of the BRW Rich List 2016

From family disputes to successful floats, this years rich list has plenty of drama and a few new faces.

Australia ranked 25th globally for perceptions that entrepreneurs are well regarded and enjoy high-status within their societies. We lag behind Finland, Germany, Ireland, Israel, the US and other countries that afford successful entrepreneurs more status.

Community attitudes towards entrepreneurs are important. Acknowledging and celebrating successful entrepreneurs inspires others to start ventures. Just as sporting role models motivate young people to follow in their path, so too can entrepreneurial role models.

I know this first-hand. The BRW Young Rich list, which I conceived and launched more than a decade ago, was derided in some quarters. How dare we celebrate young people who create tens of millions of dollars of wealth and hundreds of jobs?

Readers, however, wrote letters saying how much the magazine inspired them. They sent photos of their kids reading the BRW Young Rich. To this day, entrepreneurs still tell me how making the various BRW lists motived them in the venture's formative years.

Advertisement

One of Australia's leading entrepreneurship researchers, Professor Alex Maritz, of La Trobe Business School, says societal attitudes help create a country's entrepreneurial culture.

"For our nation to prosper, all Australians must embrace an entrepreneurial culture, even if just tacit and societal support to our entrepreneurs," Maritz said. "Positive and negative perceptions that society has about entrepreneurship can have a strong influence on the entrepreneurial ambitions of potential and existing entrepreneurs."

I agree. As The Venture has previously argued, more people will need to create, rather than apply for, their job in the digital economy. There will not be enough full-time jobs to go around and workforce casualisation will, sadly, reach new heights.

Having a portfolio of micro-jobs and ventures, and moving between them as circumstance dictates, will be the norm for many. As will starting a venture for necessity-entrepreneurs who believe it is their best – and, perhaps only – chance of reasonable income.

An agile Australian economy will need creators, innovators, start-ups and entrepreneurs. And a community that backs them to the hilt and is there for them when they fail (ethically). Not one that shuns or derides entrepreneurial success, or is indifferent to it.

Australia's attitude towards entrepreneurship is hard to reconcile with the country's rising global standing in new-venture activity.

More people will need to create, rather than apply for, their job in the digital economy.

We rank third for total early-stage entrepreneurial activity among innovation-driven economies, says GEM, and first for employee entrepreneurial activity, where staff are involved in launch products or establishing new businesses for their employer.

Imagine what Australia could do if we got behind entrepreneurs. Not only with government programs or the start-up community's good work, but with a community that genuinely encourages entrepreneurs and celebrates their success.

Now in its 18th year, GEM tracks entrepreneurship rates and attitudes across multiple phases of new venture creation and growth. By surveying households and experts in 66 countries, GEM is a snapshot of global entrepreneurship attitudes and intention.

Like all surveys, GEM has limitations. Its definition of total early-stage entrepreneurial activity is those aged 18 to 64 who are in the process of starting or running a new business that is less than 42 months old. That counts many small businesses that are not fast-growth ventures, and thus may inflate Australia's rate of early-stage entrepreneurial activity.

GEM suggests Australian entrepreneurship continues to grow, despite lacklustre community attitudes towards it.

To my thinking, these attitudes are more to do with low awareness about entrepreneurship and its benefits to individuals and the community, than the "stigma" that came from failed entrepreneurs of the 1980s.

We are asking the wrong questions. Instead of "is entrepreneurship a good career choice?", we should ask "can entrepreneurship be a career?"

A definitive "yes" means thinking about entrepreneurship in the same way we think about other professions, trades and occupations:

Specialist entrepreneurship teaching at school, TAFEs and universities, or more of it, for example.

Career counsellors at schools and universities who can help students understand if entrepreneurship suits them and how to build a career in it.

Incubators and accelerator programs that develop entrepreneurs for the next five to 10 years of their career, not only for their next venture.

A professional association for entrepreneurs that provides accreditation and ongoing career support and networking.

Getting the community to see entrepreneurship as a viable career choice means professionalising this skill. That is, having more structure around what an entrepreneurship career looks like and how to pursue it.

Those who view entrepreneurship only through the lens of start-up ventures, or believe its greatest strength is a lack of structure or conformity, miss the point. Entrepreneurs exist in large companies, not-for-profits, government enterprise and the small business community. A more professional approach to entrepreneurship would help them.

Gifted start-up entrepreneurs – the 1 per cent or less who are born with this skill – might find their best source of support is their peers. They might have little time or need for professional associations or believe entrepreneurship cannot be taught and is learned only by doing. That's their choice.

But tens of thousands of people who start ventures for the first time will benefit from a more professional approach to entrepreneurship.

When they view entrepreneurship as a sustainable, transportable career across sectors – not only something that happens around new ventures – community attitudes will change.

Who knows, parents might one day nag their kids to become entrepreneurs rather than accountants or lawyers because there is better pay and job security. But as GEM suggests, getting the community to lift its view of entrepreneurship is the immediate challenge.

Follow MySmallBusiness on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. 

0 comments