Entrepreneurism

During difficult economic times, uncertainty presents a wealth of opportunities to be exploited by entrepreneurs. But without government support and a willing to consider genuine help for start-ups, much of this potential will go to waste.

Most entrepreneurs are so focused on getting their business established and then surviving that they completely forget about planning how they will eventually move on from it.

Entrepreneurial individuals are often branded as risk takers and mistrusted by major employers. But their imagination and creativity is exactly what modern businesses need.

People tend to see work either as an obligation, overbearing, or an opportunity. And if you want to take the opportunity to rise above the mundane and "make a difference", try thinking like an entrepreneur.

Opportunity always knocks. And adversity is the mother of opportunity. When the economic picture looks grim, there exist an increasing number of chances for generating bright new success.

It's hard enough for women to climb the corporate ladder, but female entrepreneurs also suffer from a gender gap when it comes to owning and starting up their own businesses.

Britain is becoming a global leader of the "knowledge economy", a business world created, staffed and led by highly-educated, technologically-savvy managers.

A multi-million dollar initiative by a U.S. bank is set to preach the virtues of good management and business skills to women in developing nations.

You opened your business with less than $35,000 operating capital. You have less than five employees. Some say you are crazy. I say people like you are the backbone of the country. And the good news is that there is plenty of help out there for you.

You may have thought up your brilliant business idea in the shed, but don't think you can succeed by keeping it there. The most successful entrepreneurs are those who think globally.

One in every six of all new businesses in the UK are founded by people aged over 50 and together they contribute £24bn annually to the British economy.

Studies have shown that the majority of college students on business courses believe they will eventually become millionaires. In fact, a good number of them think they will reach that mark before they reach the age of thirty.

What effect (if any) does gender have on entrepreneurship or the performance of new business ventures? That's the question Erin Kepler and Scott Shane set out to answer in a report for the U.S. Small Business Administration.

If you try to start a business by the seat of your pants, chances are you're going to lose your shirt. But with so much information out there to help, any budding entrepreneur ought to be able to start and grow a successful, profitable enterprise.

A generation of thrusting young entrepreneurs from emerging economies are snapping at the heels of today's stuffy Western business leaders – who need to be careful that they don't get left behind.

Watch out America. Within eight years London will be rivalling New York, Silicon Valley and Hollywood as the world's hub for, respectively, finance, internet-based start-ups and digital special effects.

The average worker is supposed to find a job, dedicate themselves to it, and slowly, inexorably climb up the corporate ladder, right? Well, twenty years ago, perhaps, but not any more.

More older people than ever are starting their own businesses. But why should this be a surprise? After all, 70 is the new 50 - and nothing beats the wisdom forged by experience.

Many entrepreneurs have a passion for their products, not a background in business. So startups can give themselves a better chance of surviving if they create a board of advisors to provide regular, outside perspectives on internal and external situations.

Women around the world are increasingly likely to set up their own businesses but tend to be less optimistic about their chances and more cautious than men in the way that they go about it.

Social networking isn't just important when it comes to landing a job. According to researchers from MIT's Sloan School of Management, the breadth of executives' networks with colleagues at other firms plays a crucial role in deciding which tech start-ups will live or die.

If affordable, transferable, health insurance existed in America, the number of people currently sheltering in traditional corporations who decided to set up on their own would be far, far higher.

He is notorious as the hard-driven entrepreneur who once banned staff from using e-mail because it reduced productivity, but John Caudwell, the billionaire founder of UK mobile phone retailer Phones4U looks like being remembered by many of his staff for a rather different parting shot.

As a new report highlights the enormous contribution made to the U.S. economy by immigrant entrepreneurs, fears are growing about the long-term effects of restrictive immigration policies.

Women are driving enterprise in the rural economy and are almost twice as likely to set up their own businesses as those living in towns, a new UK report has found.

Britain's political parties may like to paint themselves as business-friendly, but they are all failing to win the hearts and minds of the country's wealth-creating entrepreneurs.

Are entrepreneurs born or made? According to new research, six out of 10 entrepreneurs in the U.S. claim that their entrepreneurial drive is a result of nature, not nurture.

Investments by U.S. angel investors increased by 15 per cent to $12.7 billion in the first half of 2006 over the same period in 2005, with health care services and medical equipment the sectors of choice.

Americans who have been unfortunate enough to lose their jobs during the first half of the year can are likely to have have found new jobs more quickly than in each of the past two years.

The wealth of Asian entrepreneurs in the UK has grown by three times as the economy as a whole since 1998, with Asian success stories increasingly being seen in "non-traditional" sectors and industries.

Women entrepreneurs who are creative about the way they raise money for their businesses and take advantage of every financing opportunity going are more likely to reach the rapid growth stage in their businesses, a new study has found.

This Labor day, millions Americans say they want to stop laboring for others and take control of their own destinies by starting their own businesses.

Public companies such as Berkshire Hathaway, Comcast and Dell that are still run by their original founders tend to perform better on the stock markets than do other firms, U.S. research has suggested.

Access to finance has long been identified as one of the major barriers preventing more women from developing successful businesses. But how far are the banks to blame for this state of affairs?

The UK is encouraging its entrepreneurial talent to set up shop in the US rather than at home as a new report reveals that tech start-ups in the US receive 10 times as much government financial support as their counterparts in the UK.

Countries where ageing populations are increasing faster than younger people may also see a decline in entrepreneurial business activity according to research from Babson College Professor Maria Minniti.

If you're the sort of boss who gets accused of being a bit of a control freak, well done. Stand up, take the applause and be proud of yourself. It's time to come out of the closet and stop apologising.

Black Americans are twice as likely as white Americans to try to start a business and tend to be more optimistic about their business environment than other racial groups.

If you're fed up with ceaseless demands for results from "the man" without any respect in return, why not join the growing ranks of those who have turned their backs on thankless work within impersonal corporate entities and started their own businesses?

Setting up a business is a tough proposition for anybody, wherever they are located, with women finding that the odds are often further stacked against them. But even in Afghanistan, women are succeeding despite the odds.

The UK economy could receive a £580 billion shot in the arm if more businesses were started by women, ethnic minorities and people living outside London and the South East.

Value sensitivity is key to entrepreneurship. Because if you cannot find value in the new idea then it is not going to be pursued or developed.

The uncertain nature of self-employment means that self-employed men in Britain work longer hours for lower wages than their employee counterparts.

Women entrepreneurs are just as likely as men to seek out new opportunities and take risks – yet nevertheless find themselves lagging behind their male counterparts when it comes to entrepreneurial activity.

In a challenge to the accepted wisdom that the U.S. is the best place in the world in which to run a business, a new report has found that companies in the U.S. find running a business just as challenging - if not even more so - than those in the UK.

Following the publication in Britain this week of the Women and Work commission's report into gender segregation and pay, it was interesting to see a survey of Londoners which found that far more women than men view owning a business as the key to better work-life balance.

Despite a growing number of us rejecting traditional careers in favour of becoming free agents, employers are being far too slow in giving their managers the freedom to employ people in new and agile ways.

How far can the the founder of a business take their success? Surprisingly, the percentage of founder-CEOs who go the distance is extremely low. But why?

Almost 70,000 people in the UK make at least a quarter of their annual income by trading on Ebay, according to a survey by market research outfit, A C Neilsen.

Jack Weil, founder and CEO of Denver-based Rockmount Ranch Wear, turns up for work every morning just as he has done since 1946. At 104 years old, he's not planning to go anywhere else because "what else am I supposed to do all day?".

Entrepreneurship isn't just about having a new idea. It also needs effective design if the idea is going to take off.

The working week for Britain's small business entrepreneurs may have grown by almost 10 per cent in the past three years, but the desire to be their own boss shows no sign of deterring people from wanting to go it alone.

Hard though it can be to believe, you can make a difference without toeing the corporate line. What you need more than anything else is passion.

Entrepreneurs might not necessarily be more skilled than those less successful, but they have the knack of spotting opportunities and seizing their chances.

With nine out of 10 new ventures doomed to failure, what is it that enables the remaining one in 10 to succeed?

A poll commissioned by the Daily Telegraph newspaper has found that the majority of people in Britain embrace wealth creation and respect entrepreneurs but are suspicious of large companies and their bosses.

Young people are being deterred from starting up their own businesses because of a fear of failure, lack of role models and a rules-based 'conveyor-belt' educational system that crushes the enterprise spirit.

Entrepreneurs are shunning family members when setting up a business and increasingly setting up new ventures with friends rather than relatives.

Rather than becoming fixated on the number of students who pass or fail A-Levels, employers, politicians and teachers should simply be ensuring workers of the future come into employment equipped with the right skills, employers have said.

Despite all the rhetoric talking up Britain's enterprise culture, the government is failing to stimulate the development of small businesses, according to a report from the country's largest employers group.