Inspiring entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is now ‘in’, politically speaking. In case there were any doubts about that, a quick look through the agenda of the just-concluded  ‘Global Entrepreneurship Week’ would provide ample confirmation. The organisers, were expecting more than ten million would-be entrepreneurs across 123 countries to take part in the programme.

That’s just as well. The tide of rising unemployment across Europe is having a disproportionate impact on the young – with news this week that the number of under-24 year olds out of work in the UK has spiralled to over one million, for example. Giving people help and advice, and creating an environment in which they can overcome their inertia and develop and apply entrepreneurial instincts has never been more critical.

But it’s also important – as is so often the case - not to confuse entrepreneurship with self-employment. When unemployment rises spare rooms are converted to home offices, and hands are turned to crafts and baking, or to cultivate other skills to try and earn a living.

It’s telling that countries with the highest levels of unemployment are often those that claim the highest levels of entrepreneurship. Sorry, but this mainly consists of people who can’t find jobs setting up on their own to try and make a living that way.

There do need to be movements like Global Entrepreneurship Week to inspire young people and help provide the channels through which to realise entrepreneurial ambitions. There also need to be policy measures to encourage enterprise from the bottom up, such as teaching the value of entrepreneurship and innovation in schools and universities, providing mentors, and holding up successful entrepreneurs as role models.

But it is important that events such as Global Entrepreneurship Week, and schemes governments are cobbling together to keep restive youth occupied, are not allowed to create the impression that anyone can be an entrepreneur if they would only apply themselves.

Neither should they become substitutes for more thoroughgoing efforts to promote the emergence of the fast-growing new companies that are the most productive source of new jobs. In particular, this means fostering world class skills and providing access to the finance that is so vital to corporate growth and which is currently - as SMEs know only too well - in miserably limited supply.

In short, in entrepreneurship, quality not quantity is what matters. By all means encourage the millions without jobs to become self-employed if they want to, or needs must – but don’t aggrandise that by equating it to entrepreneurship because it’s not.

Global Entrepreneurship Week: http://unleashingideas.com