What’s your motivation for starting your own business? Hands up who wants to be their own boss; reaping the rewards for your hard work instead of watching it go into someone else’s pocket?
Hands up who wants a better work/life balance and control over what hours they work? Who’s got a big idea they’d love to make happen?
Who has just been made redundant and thinks starting-up is actually more viable than finding another job? Are you simply unemployable and one of those people who just can't work for someone else? Are you an immigrant people won’t employ?
Who here wants to juggle a part-time business with another job or looking after a family? Who’s passionate starting about a social enterprise with both business and ethical values?
And finally, who thinks starting a business will realistically make them a millionaire? For how many of you is money really the main motivation?
I’ve interviewed more than 1,000 entrepreneurs. More than 1.2m of you have visited Startups this year. The magnificent achievements of 56 of you were marked at this year’s Startups Awards. We’ve met lots of you out and about at our Startups Live events and thousands of budding entrepreneurs from around the world joined us for our Startups Webinars series.
I’ve basically had the pleasure of meeting, chatting to and writing for a significant section of the start-up community, and do you know what? Almost every single entrepreneur I speak to has two or three reasons that come before purely obtaining wealth for starting-up.
It’s desirable for almost all, of course. Who doesn’t in this capitalist society value the security and freedom wealth gives you? And for many, lots of the reasons listed above are mutually appreciative.
Money though, alone, is not why people start-up – and arguably there are many easier ways to make it. Consider the statistics: 400,000 people will start-up in the UK this year, swelling the business population to 4.3million, of which 99.3% are small businesses.
At the last count there were around 425,000 millionaires in the UK with a significant percentage attaining their fortunes through property, corporate careers, trading, sport, the arts and inheritance.
It was no surprise to me then that a report out this week conducted by T-Mobile and Kingston Business School found just 4% of start-ups were motivated by the notion they’d become millionaires.
The majority wanted better work-life balance. Unfortunately that’s not overly realistic either, as the two thirds who admitted they’d actually struggled to manage their time and have damaged relationships with family and friends have found out! But that’s another story…
What motivates you?
