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Articles

Study: 78 percent students want to start their own buisinesses

78 percent students would like to start their own companies. Factors stopping them from fulfilliung their dreams include: shortage of capital, high risk, everyday bureaucracy and lack of experience, according to the Foundation Initium study, conducted under a project supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

The survey of students, graduates, academics and organizations that support entrepreneurs was conducted in May this year as part of the project YES (Young Enterpreneurs Support) implemented by the Foundation Initium with the support of the Ministry.

Why do students want to set up their own companies? The most frequently cited motivations are independence and the opportunity to follow their own ideas.

While students see themselves as entrepreneurs, is 54 percent of them do not believe that the university has prepared them well to conduct their own businesses. However, they do believe in equal opportunities - only less than one in four believes that connections and favouritism are necessary to start a business.

What they believe is needed to achieve success is a starting capital, support in "paper work" that is, consulting and legal, accounting and HR services, contacts and business know-how. In these areas, young people expect help from organizations that support entrepreneurs.

Virtually all (93 percent) students know that there are organizations, which could support them (e.g. business incubators, employment offices, business angels organizations). But as many as 88 percent respondents who dreamed of independent work never contacted such institutions. According to GUS data, in 400 thousand companies registered in 2010, just over one in a hundred received support of one of 735 such organizations.

President of the Foundation Initium Paweł Dobrowolski argues that the problem is not only the scale, but also the scope of assistance that these organizations offer. "On average, the support institution addresses only half of the key needs of future business. To make matters worse, students can not count on help in the most important issues, because it is rarely offered" - believes Dobrowolski.

Only one quarter of the surveyed organizations offer the capital needed to start a business, and only one in three offer assistance in accounting. None of them offer all these services simultaneously. There is no reliable measurement of the support effectiveness - 45 percent surveyed organizations do not have data on the performance of businesses they support.

Recommendations made by Initium include the introduction of the Mentor program, which consists in assigning, as far as possible, an experienced entrepreneur to all projects, who would support young people with advice, know-how and contacts. Mentor could provide his services pro bono or in exchange for shares in the profits of future business. Mentors should be successful people with experience in business, local entrepreneurs.

According to the Foundation Initium, business consulting companies should be used on a wider scale, in particular in the formulation of strategies, preparing business plans, analysis and market research.

Also worth considering, representatives of the Foundation believe, isthe organization of support for entrepreneurs in the form of comprehensive "support centres", in which it would be possible to receive comprehensive assistance for all the processes necessary to operate the company (particularly accountancy and human resources, legal services, office and IT infrastructure, tax advice, etc.). The support would be provided in the form of "service vouchers" for use in supporting companies that have signed agreements with the appropriate organization.

The project "YES - Young Enterpreneurs Support" aims to determine the most effective and desired by future entrepreneurs methods to support the academic enterprises and commercialisation of scientific research, and promote research among existing institutions supporting this area (such as business incubators, business angels organizations).

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

last modification: 2011-12-05

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Study: 78 percent students want to start their own buisinesses

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