It’s all about Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship we hear it more and more everyday (I have it written down in my CV! even though I would not classify myself as being an entrepreneur) that symbolizes the word for financial stability, well-being, social status and prestige. The word first touched my ear after the financial crisis, when it became a hugely promoted word through the UK’s educational system from degrees/modules names (that train individuals the ‘skills’ needed to become an entrepreneur) possessing some form of the word ‘entrepreneur’ to idolizing of individuals of Richard Branson right from the start of Primary school.
Why?
Well after the Financial Crisis of ’08 things turned out to be different then people actually thought:
- Banking lost its shine as a place of stability due to the high number of job losses and gradual automation of many different processes that did not require human labour
- Banking due to the various scandals such as rigging of the LIBOR rate
- Salaries in the banking industry have fallen due to the increased competition from the abundant labour giving incentive to individuals to enter other industries
- Government realised that the economy is too reliant on the financial sector which is faced with a huge amount of instability and speculation in result it decided to rebalance the economy to export based through manufacturing/IT.
How?
Well There were a variety of incentives:
- Government subsidies in the form of of tax cuts and grants to specific business types eg. small businesses
- launch of different programs that give advice/guidance such Accelerator can even be in the form of additional funding
- Society approves it more; it is deemed as healthy for the greater good of society
- Education teaching skills that are more related to entrepreneurship
Problems?
too many to count…. :
- even though it has considerably shrunk banking still has a salary advantage with the average graduate starting at £35K compared to £25K in the technology sector and in manufacturing it is even lower
- Banking is still regarded as the star career in the eyes of the smartest graduates (personal experience through what I’ve seen at UCL)
- Government reduction in spending.
- Hard to acquire loan in the form of capital for a start-up due to restrictive lending by banks
- fall n purchasing power of UK consumers over the last 5 years
- Other Micro & Macro economic problems
The Future
Still a new term too many, entrepreneurship is still the toddler state in comparison to other careers it is quickly growing with the help of all parts of society and for Britain it is a key part of Osborne’s economic plan to rebalance the economy and provide growth. Without entrepreneurs, there would be little hope for Britain.
Wojciech Buchacz, Accelerator Intern