Why Australia should celebrate entrepreneurs
Allan Bond, Laurie Connell, Kevin Parry and others involved in W.A Inc. at the height of the 80s have probably given the term “entrepreneur” a bad reputation.
However, every day across Australia and the globe for that matter, there are millions of entrepreneurs running small and medium sized businesses.
Entrepreneurs make a huge contribution to the Australian economy and often this contribution is unrecognised. I recently read a federal Department of Treasury report from 2012, titled Australian Small Business – Key Statistics and Analysis.
Whilst the data may be a little outdated now, it paints a very compelling picture.
Surely the findings of this report demonstrate clearly the importance and the huge contribution entrepreneurs make to the Australian economy.
In as much as the previously mentioned examples have given us a bad name – the millions of business owners who just get on with running their business are worthy of celebration.
Let’s have a look at some of the key numbers…
Entrepreneurs are serious economic contributors
Contribution to Gross Domestic Product – Private Sector Contribution
Small and Medium Sized Businesses 57%
Large Sized Businesses 43%
Entrepreneurs are employers
Share of Private Sector Employment
Small and Medium Sized Businesses 70%
Large Sized Businesses 30%
Entrepreneurs are risk takers – obviously!
Funding Sources for Start-up Businesses
Nascent Firms Young Firms
Use of personal savings 72% 51%
Use of credit cards 21% 19%
Founders secured bank loans 12% 11%
Entrepreneurs are innovative
56% of businesses with 20 – 200 staff are classified as innovating businesses.
“An innovative business is one that has introduced a new or significantly improved good or service; operational process; organisational/managerial process; or marketing method.”
Across Australia there are over 300,000 businesses employing more than 5 staff. As you can see from the statistics listed, they are a major source of wealth for the Australian economy.
Final thoughts
Australia has historically seen itself as “riding on the sheep’s back” when agriculture was the major source of Australian prosperity, and more recently it has seen itself as intrinsically linked to the mining and resources sector.
As mining cools as a major driver of economic activity, perhaps we will celebrate the entrepreneur more explicitly as the group of people who are pushing the country’s economy forward.
