What does it take to increase entrepreneurship?
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Our friend's at Crain's Detroit Business are asking the question: What does it take to increase entrepreneurship?
A recent Uof M study said six cities in our area -- Auburn Hills, Dundee, Plymouth Township, Southfield, Troy, and Tecumseh -- ranked at the top of the scale in attracting and retaining entrepreneurial companies.
Communities were judged on six factors:
- clustering or concentration of business property and infrastructure
- incentives
- growth
- local government policies and practices
- residents' education levels
- community indicators of entrepreneurship.
What do you think? Post your answers below or send your response to comment@crain.com. They may feature you in an upcoming article.
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I think the most important factor in growing the ranks of entrepreneurs in our community is a strong and vibrant network. All business is relationship business. Without a network you have no business!
Good point Charlie...
Entrepreneurship needs the vision, perseverence, innovation,leadership skills on and on ... Philosophically its very true but for the endevor of an entreprenuer to survive wht is practially needed is the concept of "demand in market".
Here comes the power of networking - Its the most effective way to identify & reach those "demand" and even more, a lot of times... Networking can create that demand !
Having worked with entrepreneur's for 17 years and being an entrepreneur myself these past seven years, I think I can provide some insight to the question. At the root of why people don"t become entrepreneur's always seems to boil down to one thing, FEAR.
One hundred years ago the Detroit area was "the place to be" if you were an entrepreneur. As these entrepreneurial companies became successful they provided unimaginable wealth not only for the entrepreneur but also for the hundreds of thousands who would come to work in their businesses. The culture changed from an entrepreneurial culture to a "thirty and out" culture. The area became a place for people who were looking for good steady work and a nice income. Risk taking was frowned upon. We no longer valued the entrepreneurial culture.
Today we have a huge population of displaced workers (talent) looking for a place to comfortably land, hoping that the auto companies will come roaring back, that "thirty and out" will be theirs again.
Sadly the culture has bred followers not leaders, workers not entrepreneur's, stability seekers not risk takers.
Today, some of our citizens break through the fear to become entrepreneurs, but not nearly in proportion to the number of highly talented people that could become successful entrepreneur's.
A culture change is necessary to bring about any noticable change in the percentages of people that will become entrepreneur's. It will come through the painful realization that the autos are not going to roar back. It will change out of necessity.
How we talk about entrepreneurship in our schools. How we educate our population. How we encourage people to try new things, take a risk. What our State and Local governments do to encourge entrepreneurship. How we celebrate entrepreneurship in our communities. All of these things matter and all of them add up to a cultural change that will bring entrepreneurship back to center stage here in Michigan.
Until then FEAR prevents us from moving forward.
Greg Doyle
The Entrepreneur's Source
It takes education. Educating employees they have options. If they were to create their own companies they can find health insurance and work with financial planners to create the security they feel a full-time job provides. It takes educating in leadership and how to take an idea and create a turnkey duplicatable system and process so they can hire and lead others to create a revenue generating business allowing the flexibility most employees are craving today.
I think everyone has had some terrific points. But I would tend to think that it really has little to do with geography or the mechanics of the business. There is so much information out there to assist would-be entrepreneurs with things like startup issues, marketing, networking, legal advice, etc. And with technology being what it is, the geographical barriers are becoming smaller and smaller every day. I think Greg hit the nail on the head, it comes down to intestinal fortitude. Are you willing to sacrifice the steady paycheck, the boat, the vacations, the second car, (possibly) health benefits, whatever it takes, etc., while the business starts from the ground up? I would guess that the majority of the time the answer is no.