Achieving Sustainable Entrepreneurship Development

There is a pervasive tendency to equate entrepreneurship development (ED)  with self employment. Many self employed individuals are indeed entrepreneurs, but the majority are not. Their businesses are simply micro-enterprises in the informal sector,  with little  growth potential. The promotion of self-employment is a worthwhile  objective, but it should  not be confused with entrepreneurship development programmes that  in reality focus only on self self-employment are less likely to succeed  in creating economic growth.

Entrepreneurship development should be about helping  people to start and grow dynamic businesses that provide high value added. In determining the difference, it is useful to look at potential growth sectors or geographic areas and to explore criteria for selecting beneficiaries who are entrepreneurial. A needs assessment before programme formulation is useful. An analysis of high-growth economic sectors enable more focused support to entrepreneurs in the most promising sector of the economy.

Entrepreneurship development programmes require a selection process that attempts to identify those target groups that have some of the key prerequisites for entrepreneural success. While it can be argued that public funds should be spent on those who most need help,  a selection process deploys limited resources where they are most effective, to the overall benefit of the community beneficiaries may be individuals and/or groups.

Entrepreneurship development programmes should be formulated to identify risks and determine the likelihood of success, identify the factors that affect the levels of entrepreneurship in the country. These factors include the perception of opportunity, degree of respect accorded to entrepreneurs, acceptance of wide disparities in income and a family environment which is oriented towards business.

An entrepreneurship development programme should help aspiring entrepreneurs to recognize and design unique, innovative business opportunities, based on an analysis of local conditions and their own special  skills. The program can help the entrepreneur to diversify based on his or her basic knowledge of a product or skill in a certain sector without distorting the local markets.