Over 80% of workers interested in entrepreneurship: survey
February 6, 2009 by Admin
With more and more workers seeing their livelihoods threatened by rising unemployment, entrepreneurship is being seen as a new way out, according to the results of arecent survey released Friday by the online employment broker 104 Job Bank.
The survey found that 81.6 percent of workers are interested in starting a business, 7.6 percent of whom are determined to do so.
Of these potential entrepreneurs, 15.2 percent said they are thinking of making a change because their employment situation is not good. However, the two reasons the respondents mentioned most frequently for wanting to start a business were a desire to live the life they want and to realize their dreams.
The results showed that older workers, especially those in their 50s, are most likely to turn to entrepreneurship because of unemployment, with 26.6 percent of workers in this age group saying that losing their jobs was what gave them the urge to start a business.
Some 23.3 percent of respondents interested in entrepreneurship plan to move in that direction within one year, 22.5 percent intend to do so in one to two years, 19.9 percent in two to three years, and 34.4 percent in three years or more, according to the survey.
The survey also revealed that older workers tend to be more proactive in trying to put the idea into practice.
More than 53 percent of respondents in their 40s and 40 percent of those in their 50s are planning to start a business within one year, compared to 24.6 percent of those in their 30s and 15.1 percent of those in their 20s.
On average, the potential entrepreneurs would require £11,500 in startup funds, the survey found.
As to the kinds of business they what to run, 39.4 percent expressed interest in coffee shops, restaurants or snack bars, and 39.1 percent indicated a preference for operating an online business.
Nearly 40 percent of the potential entrepreneurs are optimistic that they can make a profit in six to 12 months after start-up, and 23.7 percent expect a gain within six months.
Meanwhile, among the respondents who have no desire to go into business, 61.5 percent think starting a venture in times of economic recession is a risky undertaking.
Other reasons mentioned by this group of respondents included a lack of capital, lack of personal qualities to run a business, and lack of any special expertise.
The survey was conducted Jan. 19-23 among 7,632 members of the job bank. It had a margin of error of 1.12 percent.
