Business News
Small businesses after the recession: blameless victims or innovative entrepreneurs?
In the run up to the recent election there was a lot of heated debate about how independent businesses had fared under a recession hit Labour government:
• We needed a recession to get rid of the weaker businesses holding us back.
• Small independent businesses are being ignored and allowed to go bust.
• Business Link is doing nothing to help my business.
• Business Link saved my business!
• Small, independent businesses deserve grants so they can go on to develop in the future.
The main problem with all these conflicting opinions can be seen most clearly when people begin to use the term ‘entrepreneurs’.
At present, there seems to be two defining ideas of what a post recession ‘entrepreneur’ is:
# 1 – The blameless victims
Always using the word ‘they’ to describe the reasons for the difficulties within their business, ‘they’ being accountants, staff, Gordon Brown, etc, these type of entrepreneurs will never admit that perhaps they might have had some hand in the problems? Strange that.
# 2 – I will survive
The second group is the more innovative and inspiring ‘can do entrepreneurs’. Motivating rule breakers, these professionals don’t exactly welcome the recession, but look outside the ‘norm’ for new opportunities and revenue.
What’s in a name?
The problem that we have when we talk about ‘entrepreneurs’ is that whinging, helpless business people who feel that their company should be supported by the state are, unfortunately, grouped in with hard working, innovative, genuine entrepreneurs. Would these businesses have failed anyway without the handy recession excuse to fall back on? Should we let them fail?
Creative and inspiring, the new wave of ‘recession entrepreneurs’ have been hardened by the challenges they faced during the downturn and have developed mindsets that come up with new and different ways of satisfying customer demand.
What we call ourselves is of little importance; what is clear is that the entrepreneurial mindset is a crucial characteristic in businesses that are successfully growing their way out of difficulty. The energy and passion that comes from, the ability to spots ideas and muster resources to make them happen, is even more important to the wider economic future of the UK.
Thinking Big
Einstein’s definition of insanity is: “doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.”
Some business owners behave like they’ve been stuck or trapped, going round in circles, doing the same thing every day, awaiting someone to help them out of the hole.
Entrepreneurs are already out of the hole, walking off into the distance, defining clear methods and strategies that will enable them to avoid the holes in the future and grow as individuals and businesses. These types of business people will help the nation grow out of recession and into brighter financial futures and markets.
So please, be entrepreneurial and do something different!
