Recently I decided to take a big step in my life and start my own company. This got me thinking about the topic of entrepreneurship in Poland.
There is a lot of talking around the level of unemployment in our country. In my surrounding a lot of older people think that the government should be the main institution to provide jobs for the young. Personally, I believe that this should be the other way around and that the young should be motivated and provided with knowledge and incentives to create their own businesses and create job opportunities for themselves and for others.
Here's an interesting article covering this topic:
http://www.gew.co/press-releases/what-future-entrepreneurship-poland-0
in which you can find the following statement:
"young Poles far more often than their age-mates from other European countries perceive themselves as entrepreneurs, but small percentage of them eventually decide to take up their own business activity"
What do you think may be the factor that may lead to this discrepancy?
As a funny side note, please look at the video presented below in which people in 1989 are asked about the meaning of the word 'entrepreneurship':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SOcQ5qXtRo
Although it might seem funny I would like to ask you a question: what does this word actually mean to you?
Please feel free to talk about your personal experience on this topic. Have you ever run your own business or know someone who does? Do you think that having your own company is the only way to reach a good financial level? And what about the level of education in our schools - do you know what are the pros and cons of having your own business?
P.S. If you find any additional material around this topic please share with us!
There is a lot of talking around the level of unemployment in our country. In my surrounding a lot of older people think that the government should be the main institution to provide jobs for the young. Personally, I believe that this should be the other way around and that the young should be motivated and provided with knowledge and incentives to create their own businesses and create job opportunities for themselves and for others.
Here's an interesting article covering this topic:
http://www.gew.co/press-releases/what-future-entrepreneurship-poland-0
in which you can find the following statement:
"young Poles far more often than their age-mates from other European countries perceive themselves as entrepreneurs, but small percentage of them eventually decide to take up their own business activity"
What do you think may be the factor that may lead to this discrepancy?
As a funny side note, please look at the video presented below in which people in 1989 are asked about the meaning of the word 'entrepreneurship':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SOcQ5qXtRo
Although it might seem funny I would like to ask you a question: what does this word actually mean to you?
Please feel free to talk about your personal experience on this topic. Have you ever run your own business or know someone who does? Do you think that having your own company is the only way to reach a good financial level? And what about the level of education in our schools - do you know what are the pros and cons of having your own business?
P.S. If you find any additional material around this topic please share with us!
I have never owned any business; however most of my family has had one. What can I say, from what I heard and observed, it seems quite a hard way of life in Poland. And I am not referring to what happened many years ago, before the fall of Communist system, because it was totally different world, one that I have no first-hand experience of.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, there are a lot of different programs to help young entrepreneurs, which is good, but according to the actual market research and stories in the media, it is very difficult to survive in this market on the long run.
A lot of competition, enormous beaurocracy and very steep requirements for investment credits, all these conditions prevent a lot of young people otherwise full of energy, from opening their own business.
It seems that the government assistance, not matter how big, is not sufficient. Let’s have a look at the agriculture sector. Polish farmers are supposed to be treated equally as their western colleagues in the EU, but when bad comes to worse, the Polish government prefers to purchase the food and other agriculture products from abroad giving minimal subsidies to Polish farmers and making the wholesale delivery prices so low as to make the local business completely unproductive.
And the similar process is observable across the board. Avery private businessman has to work long, hard hours with very little help or understanding from banking industry or local government offices. The beaurocratic system tries is much as it can to disrupt the industrial processes of small business instead of helping them.
Our illustrious Leaders prefer spending billions of zlotych and dollars helping other countries like Irak, Afganistan or lately Ukraine, instead of improving the local infrastructure or social and health systems for small business and farmers. The big business has been all but sold to the West and that is the only part of economy that prospers. No wonder more and more young people prefer to emmigrate to other countries looking for business opportunities or better work. The country becomes more and more unstable economically, more expensive to live, as well as making it less attractive target for foreign investments.
After reading your post I am under the impression that you are not happy with the help the government is providing. In the video that Wiktor posted the Polish former finance minister Jacek Rostowki says that Poland has one of the lowest tax rates in Europe (when small business is concerned).Do you have any ideas/suggestions on what might be changed in our country to help kicking off new businesses?
DeleteI believe that simplified tax rules could help a lot.
DeleteAt first, I would like to congratulate your courage and wish you good luck!
ReplyDeleteIf I had to say without thinking a while, what the word “entrepreneurship’ meant to me, I would say that it is an ability for taking matters into their own hands.
Similarly to Kinga, I have never run my own business and I know some people who have their own businesses. When I was twenty I dreamed about running a such one. Nowadays I think that may business would have to failed because of my lack of entrepreneurship. Maybe if I had free resources (money, time) and an idea for a business I would have returned to those forgotten dreams.
For me having an own business is not necessary to reach a good financial level. I know many people who are content from their earnings and they are employees. But if somebody wants to reach a really high financial level he probably will have to have his own business (simplifying slightly the matter of course).
As far as the school education is considered, I have to say I do not have any knowledge about having my own business.
I know some people that did not have any starting capital and managed to run their business with success till now. At the same time, I know people that had a lot of financial help at the beginning but did not manage to gain much from it. Did you ever explore option of starting a business without initial capital?
DeleteI have never considered the option starting my business without initial capital. I was content from my earnings at the start of my "career". Later, when my daughter was born I changed completely priorities in my life. Then a fixed income was more important than realizing my dreams because my ex-wife was unemployed. Nowadays I see I get used to work for my current company.
DeleteI do not consider starting my own business at present, because of 2 things:
1. Studying is more important for me, thus working 40 hours per gives me stabilization.
2. I really enjoy programming in teams and I cannot imagine starting my own business at this level, especially in the area where I live.
Of course, I have not completely said “no” to my own business yet, because I cannot predict my future. But now it is out of my plans.
I think that at least some minimal initial capital is required. You must have some place to meet with co-workers and these are costs.
DeleteEntrepreneurship means having a marketable idea and taking the risk of supporting it. But it can also be a character trait, some people are more likely to take risks and start new ventures, while others prefer to rely on someone else.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting topic and I agree that entrepreneurship is important. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and (together with our large internal market) they are one of the reasons why we haven't had a recession unlike other countries. At least that's according to our former finance minister. Here's an interesting talk about Britain and Poland that he gave somewhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6TMNjYc7v0
That would mean there's more entrepreneurship in Poland than in other countries. I'm not sure what's the reason behind that, assuming it's true?
I have no experience in this area and haven't attended any courses about starting a business, so I can't share any tips.
Good luck!
Thanks for the video, very informative indeed! I was not aware that Polish small businesses provide over 37% of overall employment in Poland.
DeleteI've heard one 'funny' thing regarding Polish/British government: it was about the statistics that in recent years the GB gov created more jobs for Poles then the Polish one :).
DeleteI'm not right enough person, to comment this topic. This is because I'm not a person at a young age; I'm a boss, but rather in middle age. However, I will try to say something in the topic of entrepreneurship. I describe my activity in this field. I will not evaluate what happened; just will write some facts about myself.
ReplyDeleteI am an entrepreneur since 1990 with intervals. I've been my own boss for 18 years. First my own business I had in years 1990-1994. I was full of energy but I had not own capital. So I had to take loan. It was difficult when in 1990 I had to paying 30-40% MONTHLY interest on working capital loan but in two years I managed myself. In those days various authorities have discovered that are people like me and then they have increased taxes and have started tax inspections. I survived it, but in 2004, this time local authorities have raised the rent for the premises rented from the city to the absurd level. That was the end.
The next four-year period when I had my own company, lasted from 1999-2003. Remembering what happened previously I have decided to do not rent property from the authorities. But this time ZUS led me to fall through their para-taxes and bureaucracy.
After the third time, I started in 2004 and I am an entrepreneur to today. According to my subjective assessment in 2005-2007 was the best time to business. Middling was been in 2008-2011 but since 2012 my turnover decreased by 50% due to lack of orders. It seems to me that it is evident the effect of the current recession. The question is how long this state can take, because if long it's probably my company again will not survive.
Thanks for your interesting story. I have a friend who says "by each business that you run and fail you increase the probability of your next one to be a success!" Do you think this statement is true?
DeleteCurrently I have my own business and to be honest I'm not complaining because of this :) .
ReplyDeleteWorking for yourself has its advantages and disadvantages one of the main advantages is that I'm the boss for my self. What is more because I work for myself I have more motivation, because I am aware that how much I earn depends only from me and and how many hours I'll be working.Talking about the disadvantages the one of the main drawbacks is that I'm still at work. When you working for someone else then you typically working from hour to hour after the specified time you going out from work and you have time for yourself while working for yourself you are constantly at work 24 hours 7 days a week . What is more in our country owning your own business is very difficult because the government itself does not help .In my opinion our government instead of helping entrepreneurs only hampers making own business
It seems to me that our Country is still alive in the time of communism where everyone was up and entrepreneur was a necessary evil , and for this reason government in most cases treat entrepreneur in advance as thieves :)
: I'm glad that you mention the fact that having you own business requires you to be at work 24/7 as I think this makes room for a really interesting discussion (I hope :). Do you think that having your own business makes you a workaholic? What can you do to maintain a healthy work-life balance?
DeleteIt's interesting that more Poles believe themselves to be entrepreneurs that other nationalities. Then again, this might be their youthful idealism speaking, before actual reality proves them wrong, and they start looking for their chances abroad. Or maybe it's the actual difficulty of being an entrepreneur, which is very different from their vision. Our democracy is still quite young, and thus business opportunities are quite recent, perhaps that is a factor, I do not know.
ReplyDeleteLike some people above, I didn't have my own business, though I can't really say I'm unhappy about that. I don't really feel like this is the best way for me and have no need for it. Being one's own boss does offer independence and freedom, but also a lot of challenges, stress, responsibility and no guarantee of success. Yes, the potential earnings are superior to that of "mere" employee, but by the time one gets there, they could have quite comfortable living as a such.
I also remember family members trying their way with their own business and their success rate was varied. In all cases, bureaucracy was a massive hurdle, and even though things have supposedly improved in recent years, it was quite discouraging to watch them struggle against our own government. As well as spending long hours at work and not having much to show for it.
Either way, not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur to be happy with their live. Besides, if they were, who would they even employ at that point? ;)
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ReplyDeleteAs to your first question, I believe that it is depends from training in this aspect (I can't find good training in Poland). I had my own company in Poland for six years and recently when I did some courses at MIT regarding entrepreneurship I really realized what it really is.
ReplyDeleteAs to the second question I don't want to copy my teacher so let me paste the link of the article: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324324404579045312867464966
I hope you will like, this is really nice article.
Currently I closed my company and I working for big company but this is not mean "I don't prefer to have again my company"
I waiting again for good/nice "idea", if I find something in my head (there is to many ideas now) then I will open again my company ;)
I also would like to congratulate you on taking this big step and i wish you that this step will be a step to success. For me entrepreneur is a person who can take a risk of running own business or other risky activity. I have never run my own business probably because that there was always other attractive and secure job opportunities.
ReplyDeleteThe entrepreneurship for me means the ability to first have an idea, find a way and courage to bring it to life, and have a persistence to stick to it.
ReplyDeleteI have never owned any business but a lot of my friends do so I am quite familiar with advantages and disadvantages of it. After listening to my friends I came to some conclusions. When you own a business you always give 100%. You always want to do everything the best you can and you don’t waste your time. You don’t do things that you thing are pointless as no one tells you what to do. And your success depends on you only and you can’t blame anyone if something goes wrong.
But there are some disadvantages like you never have full stability of your employment, you can’t be sure how much you will earn for example next year so it is hard to plan your expenses in advance.
The biggest disadvantage for me however is that you actually work 24/7. Even when you are at home at night, during the weekend or you go for a holiday far away you still think about work and you worry about it. Many of my friends had to suddenly come back from holiday because something went wrong with their business. This is something I could never do. When I am at work, I am fully concentrated at work but in my free time work is the last thing I want to think of.
Most of thoughts that I have about entrepreneurship is about situations where someone calls himself one.
ReplyDeleteI believe that a person must be called entrepreneur by the others and only then it has true value.
Calling ourselves that way seems rather as a wishful thinking not the real fact.
Entrepreneurs do not dedicate their time for describing themselves. They spent time acting in the fields they are most interested in leaving everything else far behind. Quite often it includes their family (e.g. Steve Jobs daughter Lisa).
Having a fresh company started opposite to operating a company so it serves as the main financial source of income are two separated matters. The latter is far more difficult :)
In our country, running your own business is very heavy and difficult. Very high fees, inspections, discourages a lot of work to run their businesses. It is easier for us close the company and work
ReplyDeletewith the employer eight hours and go home without thinking about work. If we own the company are with her 24 hours a day. We have to be disciplined enough to cope with difficult issues.
In Poland there is a very large bureaucracy.What is needed is a very large number of people Someone runs the office. Employer Self-respect is not able to control it all. Then resign from the
company and takes a job in large corporations.
Congrats on becoming an entrepreneur! Hopefully everything will work well.
ReplyDeleteAnswering first question, I would think that people don’t open their own business because of lack of examples and encouragement from our environment. Only really bold and interested in this kind of activity are trying to it (in Poland). On the other hand I can see it changes and so more and more people are interested in it.
When I’ve been in Silicon Valley recently, I found out that many say that if you don’t have a steady job and you’re going to lots of networking events, you’re an entrepreneur – the point is, there are places where almost everyone is encouraged and considered entrepreneur if one does not have a regular job. Completely different mindset. Really.
After I’ve graduated I’ve worked in corpo for half a decade and for last two years I’m working “for myself”. In my opinion there are many ways to “reach good financial level” but one of most encouraging things about having own business is that you get out what you put in, so the money you make is directly connected to how much effort you put to your business. I like it a lot. When working for someone, it usually don’t matter how much money you make for a company, your salary is more less on the same level all the time. What is more important, as Robert Kiyosaki said: “If you don’t build your dreams, someone will hire you to build theirs”. I decided to build my dreams and make money of that. As in picture in the link below at least I can see purpose in what I’m doing.
http://visual.ly/day-life-corporate-vs-startup
About education in few words. On any level and in any place – it prepares quite well for being an employee. There are more and more people that want to change it, to start talking about managing money and entrepreneurship as a part of education on any level.
I’ve got tons of materials but as a start I would suggest anyone that wants to start something own to read: “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” R. T. Kiyosaki, “Founders at work” Jessica Livingstone, “Go global” Krzysztof Rybiński. The value of those books is that they are examples of someone’s work (both success and failures) and not theory. The best knowledge you can get about being an entrepreneur is from another successful entrepreneur. I would be happy to gain knowledge from founders of PayPal, Firefox, Yahoo! or Solaris and you can find it in those books.
If you don’t have an economic background I would also suggest reading and learning lean canvas method as a good start to understand principles of what is important in business.
So again – good luck with your business!
I have my own company for many years and it is really difficult.
ReplyDeleteDeveloping a special effects in the film.
In fact, the market for special effects in t Poland does not exist.
Film Production market does not exist, in Poland.
It is a constant struggle and improvisation.
The biggest problem is the system that does not allow the development of entire industries in Poland.
If we change the system, we'd gained on everyone.