Is it easier to become an entrepreneur now than it was several decades ago? Today’s founders probably can’t conceive of starting a business without the aid of technology, while many of those who began their business journeys in the pre-digital age recall there was less competition and therefore a greater chance of success.
It’s a question I put to Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, who started his first business in the 1970s, long before the dawn of mobile phones and the Internet. Thanks to technology opening so many doors, he believes there are more opportunities today than ever.
He says: “Customers are just as happy to buy from someone based at home as they are from a business on the high street, and this brings the cost of starting a business down dramatically. You don’t have to commit to expensive global advertising campaigns but can do your marketing and market testing at the touch of an iPhone.”
And as he points out, it’s easier to get funding to start a business, with schemes such as crowdfunding and Start Up Loans helping entrepreneurs avoid many of the difficulties in securing business funding presented by mainstream funding sources, such as the banks.
“While competition may be fiercer, I believe that if you have an idea for a business that solves a problem and makes people’s lives better, as a result, you have a good shot at success,” he says.
Arguably those who started up in the tech sector 30 years ago have witnessed the greatest changes and the biggest impact on life as an entrepreneur.
Inspired by the moon landings and the dawn of the computer age in the 1960s, Andrew Bud had always wanted to be an engineer. He went on to become one of the pioneers of the European mobile communications industry, as CTO and a founding member of Vodafone Italia.
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In 1987, he was a key member of the team responsible for creating the first digital consumer wireless telephone, which now resides in the Science Museum in London. Today he is the founder and CEO of face verification startup iProov and reflects on life as an entrepreneur, then and now.
He says: “In the 1980s everything in mobile was regulated, and a business could live or die by the stroke of an official’s pen. Regulation was just changing from national to European scale, creating not only enormous opportunities but also new challenges. Exactly the same applies now to some aspects of the identity business in which iProov operates today; it’s very recognizable.’’
Then in 1995, Bud wanted to spin out Olivetti’s premises wireless systems business, which he had founded and built, into a separate startup.
“It was impossible,” he says. “In Europe, including Italy, there simply was no venture capital, and getting skilled staff to work in a startup was extremely difficult. It was not at all glamorous or attractive back then, just horribly risky.”
Without question, he says, it is far easier today, easier to build a startup team, simply because people are up for the adventure and it’s far more socially acceptable. It’s also easier to fund a team, because there are innovation grants available to small businesses that didn’t previously exist, while the risk capital environment has been transformed by tax incentives and a decade of low interest rates.
“It’s true that competition moves faster today,” says Bud, “However, modern software makes it easier to build, evolve and test products quickly, meaning we learn faster, which is the key to any entrepreneurial activity.”
The speed at which businesses can hit the market today means that markets quickly become saturated, so that challenge for founders is being able to stand out from the crowd, and to adapt to rapid change in the market, without compromising their core business values.
Mel Pledger is the founder of personal development program DNA Light Up, however, her first foray into entrepreneurship was over 30 years ago when, at the age of 21, she became involved in running a cleaning company.
“In those days, building the business was all about keeping detailed paper records. It was slow and methodical, but it worked for me in a slow, solid, plodding kind of way.”
Today Pledger is running a company that delivers training and development programs to a broad customer base that includes business leaders and their teams, as well as to private individuals.
She says: “The challenge today is standing out and maintaining integrity in a market that becomes flooded with imitations the second a product or idea seems to be a good one. For me that is the greatest difference between being an entrepreneur then and now.”
The focus today, she says, is on authenticity and having a genuine interest in connection and humanity.
Pledger says: “Is that easier or harder than the rules of 30 years ago? I guess that’s a personal opinion. I relish the opportunity to stand up for what’s real, for our team and for the work we do and I’m loving being an entrepreneur in 2019.”
Alison Coleman is a founder of Coleman Media, with 20 years of experience in both national and international online and print publications.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.