Member Article

New entrepreneurial traits identified

Six new groups of creative types have been identified in a recent survey. These groups will help policy makers, businesses and educationalists to make use of young entrepreneurial talent.

The research, carried out by the Make Your Mark campaign, provides analysis of potential entrepreneurs based on their attitudes and motivations in addition to demographic data.

The six groups identified consist of Young Self-Starters, Hesitant Creatives, Corporate Strivers, Drifting Opportunists, Young Traditionalists, and Avoiders. The groups are characterised by their contrasting approaches to business and self-employment, and the study reports that different advertising is required in order to effectively target each group.

The Make Your Mark campaigners advised that ‘Young Self Starters’ are best engaged at school or college and should be encouraged by role models and mentors who have “done it themselves.” ‘Drifting Opportunists’ are more likely to be reached through channels outside of education such as peer networks, retail and leisure spaces or lifestyle media.

‘Hesitant Creatives’ require confirmation that their livelihood can be provided by their passion and would respond well to clubs or networks organised around their interests. ‘Corporate Strivers’, as the most ambitious group, are more likely to be reached at after-work bars or gyms or attend corporate networking events.

The most challenging types are supposedly the ‘Young Traditionalists’ and the ‘Avoiders’. Mass media emerged as the best channel through which these types could be reached but, the campaigners said, they “can be difficult to engage in enterprise directly. “These groups will require a large scale shift in prevailing cultural attitudes to make them more positively inclined towards enterprise.”

Raj Patel, Director of Policy at the Make Your Mark campaign, said: “It is well known that attitudinal barriers are significantly holding back enterprise in the UK. For example, over a third of young people say that fear of failure would prevent them from going into business. “Young people need to get the right support to take control of their own future and make their ideas happen. This research is a big step to achieving that goal.”

To find out more about the research and the findings, visit the Make Your Mark website at http://www.starttalkingideas.org/.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .