2. The Professional & Business characteristics

2. The Professional & Business characteristics

Key findings:  Only small number of survey participants have their own business  Most of them have small businesses, with 1 -9 employees  One third (2 participants) of the business owners are family successors, one third (2 participants) are second generation successors of family business, while one third (2 participants) established their own business (companies)  Most of the respondents claim that their strong side in business establishment is having a good idea, having competences for business management and having business supporters  The survey participants are mainly interested and want to invest in traditional entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship. The least of them are interested or want to invest in Circular economy respectively.

In the survey section for business characteristics, respondents had to answer several questions regarding the activity sector, the business’ size of employment, in terms of number of employees, the most important strong side they have to obtain in order to establish a business, as well as their interest in learning about and investing in particular business.

As shown on Chart 7, the survey participants with their own business, come from different area of business sector, such as manufacturing, tourism, ICT services and social services. Most of them (2 participants) didn’t specify their area of business.

Chart 7

As seen in Chart 8, most of them (4 interviewees) possess small companies with up to 9 employees, 1 interviewee stated that possesses a company with up to 50 employees while 1 of them stated that possesses a company with more than 50 employees.

Chart 8

On the question “Did you succeed in your business from your family, the survey participants gave different answers. 33% of them (2 interviewees) claimed that they will succeed a family business, 33% of them stated that they are the second or further generation of business successors, while 33 % said that they have established their own companies. (as seen from Chart 9)

Chart 9

On the question “II.4 What was/is your decisive strength for starting a business?” a large percentage of 73,1 % or 81 participants answered that the decisive strength for starting a business is having a good idea, while 49% stated that the decisive strength is having competences for business management. A good number of the survey participants or 45% stated that having business supporters is also very important and decisive for starting a business. Only 11, 5 interviewees think that having a good product is vital for starting a business.

Chart 10

From the responses on question II.5 “Which type of economy do you like to invest the most?”. It is evident that most of the interviewees stated that they will choose among traditional and social entrepreneurship. 51 of the respondents chose social entrepreneurship as a type of economy they would like to invest most, while almost the same number of 50 respondents chose traditional entrepreneurship. Fair number of interviewees (36) said that they are interested in innovations, while 31 of them declared their interest in Network Marketing Business Model. The least of the respondents chose the Circular economy as their prime type of economy they would like to invest.

The fact that the biggest number of interviewees chose the social entrepreneurship as their main type of economy is due to the fact that there are many social issues in our country that are not resolved and it is very encouraging to see that the conscience among young people about their area of living is getting on a higher level. The fact that Traditional entrepreneurship, on the other hand, is still dominant on the domestic market, explains the reason that most of the interviewees chose it as a prime type of economy to invest.

If we analyze the answers of the interviewees regarding the other types of economies, we can conclude that they are not very popular among young people in our country, or they are not so promoted by the governmental institutions. The fact that there are so many problems regarding the pollution and the protection of the environment and the EU politics on the Green economy, we can conclude that sustainable development and environmental protection have not been put in the first place in our country for a long period of time.

The results from this question can be seen on the Table II.5.

II.5 Which type of economy you like to invest most? Traditional entrepreneurship - aims to create a product, service or process for which a consumer will pay Frequency

50

Social entrepreneurship - to create a product, service or process from 51

which society will benefit

Circular economy - system aimed at eliminating waste and the continual use of resources Green economy - aims at making issues of reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, and that aims for sustainable development without degrading the environment. Block Chain Economy - is a scenario and potential future environment in which cryptocurrency replaces current monetary systems, potentially on a global basis Network Marketing Business Model - that depends on person-toperson sales by independent representatives, often working from home. Innovations economy - higher productivity, that the same input generates a greater output

Table II.5 14

25

19

31

36