Entrepreneurial Controls: Financial and Operational Standards for Emerging Businesses

As a business grows, different problems and opportunities demand different solutions - what worked a year ago might now be not the best approach. All too often, avoidable mistakes turn what could have been a great business into an also-ran. Recognising and overcoming the common pitfalls associated with growth is essential if your business is to continue to grow and thrive.

Crucially, you need to ensure that the steps you take today don't themselves create additional problems for the future. Effective leadership will help you make the most of the opportunities, creating sustainable growth for the future. This guide highlights the particular risks and mistakes that most commonly affect growing businesses and outlines what you can do about them. Market research isn't something you do as a one-off when you launch your business. Business conditions change continually, so your market research should be continuous as well.

Otherwise you run the risk of making business decisions based on out-of-date information, which can lead to business failure. The more you succeed, the more competitors notice - and react to - what you are doing. A market-leading offer one day may be no better than average a few months later. As products and services age, sales growth and profit margins get squeezed. Understanding where your products are in their lifecycles can help you work out how to maximise overall profitability. At the same time, you need to invest in innovation to build a stream of new, profitable products to market.

Published information can provide useful insights into market conditions and trends. As a growing business, your own experience can be even more valuable. You should be able to build up an in-depth picture of what customers want, how they behave and which of your marketing approaches work best. Taking the time to talk to key customers pays off. Your suppliers and other business partners can be important sources of market information.

You should encourage your employees to share what they know about customers and the market. Effective IT systems can also make it easier to share and analyse key information such as customers' purchasing behaviour and preferences. You may want to carry out extra research as well - for example, to test customer reaction to a new product.

You might do this yourself, or use a freelance researcher or market research agency. The plan that made sense for you a year ago isn't necessarily right for you now.

Market conditions continually change, so you need to revisit and update your business plan regularly. See the page in this guide on keeping up with the market. As your business grows, your strategy needs to evolve to suit your changed circumstances. For example, your focus is likely to change from winning new customers to building profitable relationships and maximising growth with existing customers. Existing business relationships often have greater potential for profit and can also provide reliable cash flow. Newer relationships may increase turnover, but the profit margins may be lower, which may not be sustainable.

See the page in this guide on cash flow and financial management. At the same time, every business needs to be alert to new opportunities. There are obvious risks to relying solely on existing customers. Diversifying your customer base spreads those risks. Following the same business model, but bigger, is not the only route to growth. There are other strategic options such as outsourcing or franchising that might provide better growth opportunities. It's important not to assume that your current success means that you will automatically be able to take advantage of these opportunities.

Every major move needs planning in the same way as a new business launch. Watch out for being too opportunistic - ask yourself whether new ideas suit your strengths and your overall vision of where the business is going. Bear in mind that every new development brings with it changing risks. It's worth regularly reviewing the risks you face and developing contingency plans. Good cash flow control is important for any business. For a growing business, it's crucial - cash constraints can be the biggest factor limiting growth and overtrading can be fatal.

Making the best use of your finances should be a key element in business planning and assessing new opportunities. With limited resources, you may need to pass up promising opportunities if pursuing them would mean starving your core business of essential funding. Every element of working capital should be carefully controlled to maximise your free cash flow.

Effective credit management and tight control of overdue debts are essential. You may also want to consider raising financing against trade debts. Good stock control and effective supplier management tend to become increasingly important as businesses grow. Holdings of obsolete stock may become a problem that needs periodic clearing up. You may want to work with suppliers to reduce delivery cycles, or switch to suppliers and systems that can handle just-in-time delivery. Planning ahead helps you anticipate your financing needs and arrange suitable funding.

For many growing businesses, a key decision is whether to bring in outside investors to provide the equity needed to underpin further expansion. New businesses often run in perpetual crisis mode. Every day brings new challenges that urgently need resolving and management spends most of their time troubleshooting. As your business grows, this approach simply doesn't work. While a short-term crisis is always urgent, it may not matter nearly as much as other things you could be doing. Spending your time soothing an irritated customer might help protect that one relationship - but focusing instead on recruiting the right salesperson could lay the foundations of substantial new sales for years to come.

For example, your business might be increasingly at risk unless you take steps to ensure your intellectual property is properly protected.

Search form

If you are focusing on individual marketing campaigns, you might need to devote more resources to developing your brand. These, however, only concern one-person enterprises and self-employment. The other four emerging forms of entrepreneurship are considered in the context of the definitions above.

In Austria, for example, one-person enterprises or self-employment is identified in three distinct forms: The first two categories are often associated with atypical employment and the working situation of such people more closely resembles that of dependent employees than entrepreneurs. They do not need trade licences. In Romania, different definitions are also used for one-person enterprises or self-employment. According to the legislation, sole proprietors may not hire labour or third parties by contract.

1. Geopolitical Conundrums;
2. The challenges of growing a business - and how to meet them.
3. Why does my nose tickle?.
4. Pleasure Factory.
5. Jack Trent.

They may work as both sole proprietor and salaried worker, they pay social security contributions, and are therefore entitled to receive a state pension and other benefits such as unemployment and health insurance from the social security fund. However, a sole proprietor may not combine this role with that of the legal owner of a one-person enterprise.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor www. As these categories can be combined with information about the expected levels of employment, it will be possible to use this data to give an indication of one-person enterprises and self-employment. In Ireland, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor is the reference study on entrepreneurship.

There may be overlaps between forms of entrepreneurships, such as part-time one-person businesses or business transfers that result in serial entrepreneurship. A general observation is that there has been an ongoing public and policy debate about entrepreneurship for many years. It first emerged at some time at the beginning of the s in northern and western European countries, gradually moving south.

After , it entered the central and eastern European countries as an integrated component of the transition process to a market economy. In the last decade the discussion has intensified and differentiated across Europe. The survey undertaken for this study suggests that during the last few years the public and policy discussion across Europe has focused more on the different forms of entrepreneurship rather than on debating business policy and entrepreneurship in general.

This analysis has looked at to what degree the public and policy discussion has focused on emerging forms of entrepreneurship see also Annex A. Most attention is paid to the entrepreneurial forms which are an integrated part of the general debate on entrepreneurship and fit into a common view of entrepreneurship — in other words, those involving one-person enterprises or the self employed and which are hoping to grow and perhaps move towards business transfer. However, public and policy discussions pay less attention to the part-time, parallel and serial types of entrepreneurship.

Even though emerging forms of entrepreneurship in general have become more visible in public and policy discussions in recent years, it is worth noting that there are variations in the different countries. The following findings give a short overview of the presence of the emerging forms of entrepreneurship in public debate and policy discussions across Europe see Annex A for more detailed responses per country.

Discussions in the EU and Norway have increasingly focused more on the one-person enterprise and self-employment styles of entrepreneurship. The main reported explanation is that this form of entrepreneurship is very closely linked to a traditional perception of entrepreneurship where one-person enterprises and self-employment are seen as the first stage of enterprise development.

There is a similar increased focus on part-time entrepreneurs and on business transfers and successions, but the underlying reasons for this are different. Part-time entrepreneurs are often associated with one-person enterprises and self-employment and therefore become part of that discussion, especially in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Sweden. Increased attention paid to business transfers and successions is often related to transferring a family business to the next generation.

If this is not successful it has a negative impact on jobs and on the broader economy. Three countries, Hungary, Sweden and the United Kingdom, indicate a relatively high degree of increased focus on this form of entrepreneurship. The other two forms of entrepreneurship, parallel entrepreneurs and serial entrepreneurs, have rarely, if at all, been considered in public and policy discussions during the last couple of years.

Only two countries report an increased focus on either of these categories. Denmark has considered parallel entrepreneurs and Sweden the serial entrepreneurs, and this heightened interest in these categories has probably been driven by the potential they offer for economic growth. Across the EU, however, these two groups of entrepreneurship are considered too small and therefore not generally important in the discourse on encouraging entrepreneurship. At times, serial entrepreneurs are more commonly identified with the business transfers and successions category, at the point when the serial entrepreneur sells on an established enterprise.

It is not possible to develop a significant geographical grouping of the countries even though some countries have a more increased focus on the emerging forms of entrepreneurship than other countries. However, it is possible to say that there is a tendency in northern and central European countries to have a more differentiated discourse on emerging forms of entrepreneurship than in eastern and southern European countries.

In this section this survey narrows its focus and examines the presence of the emerging forms of entrepreneurship in the public debate. Table 1 shows variations between European countries in the way that public and policy debates deal with emerging forms of entrepreneurship, and how the discussion has evolved over time. No reply from Ireland for all forms of entrepreneurship and no reply from Norway for serial entrepreneurs. The category of one-person enterprises and self-employment is part of the public discussion in most European countries in one way or another.

In the remaining countries, 14 have had this form of entrepreneurship on the political agenda for up to three decades. The debate in nine countries has been introduced more recently and has been less continuous. Part-time entrepreneurs are discussed in two out of three countries.

This category tends to have come to the fore more recently and to have been considered less continuously than one-person enterprises. In eight countries — six small countries and Poland and Spain — this form of entrepreneurship has not been part of the debate. In Denmark, discussions on part-time entrepreneurs were previously prevalent but ceased in the mid s.

Only in six countries parallel or serial entrepreneurs are part of the discussion. Both categories are considered in Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, Romania and the United Kingdom, and serial entrepreneurs are part of the debate in Sweden. These categories have never been on the public agenda in the remaining countries. Business transfers and successions are discussed more widely. In half of the countries this form of entrepreneurship is debated continuously or intermittently.

In the remainder, this form is no longer or has never been a part of the public discussion. The correspondents have indicated in which of the following media and forums the public debate and policy discussions take place:. The debate and discussions about the emerging forms of entrepreneurship are almost equally represented in all media and forums, as illustrated by Table 2. The public debate and policy discussions are balanced between a broad public debate, policy documents and analysis.

Presumably, this forms the basis for a more informed understanding of different entrepreneurial forms and may lead to policy action such as changes in legislation or new business support schemes. The differences in the intensity of the debate and discussions about the five forms of entrepreneurship follow the patterns described above with most attention focused on self-employment, followed by part-time entrepreneurs and business transfers and successions. One-person enterprises and self-employment is typically covered explicitly, and business transfers and successions are covered both explicitly and implicitly, while the other forms of entrepreneurships are usually covered implicitly, if at all.

In almost all countries the public debate, policy analysis, changes in legislation and business support target the one-person enterprise and self-employment. Part-time entrepreneurs are debated in two out of three countries in public media, but this category does not attract the same level of specific policy analysis, legislation or business support schemes as one-person enterprises. As stressed by the correspondents, initiatives targeting one-person enterprises and self-employment will often also include part-time entrepreneurs because of the overlap between these two forms of business activity.

The category of business transfers and successions is a target for public media debate, policy discussion and policy initiatives in two out of five countries. Parallel and serial entrepreneurs receive less attention in the public media and in policy documents and initiatives. This section provides an overview of the various policy domains in which the debate on entrepreneurship is embedded.

Policy discussions about emerging forms of entrepreneurship appear primarily in domains such as labour policy and economic and industrial policy, followed by educational and regional policy, as shown in Table 3. There is a correlation between the presence of the entrepreneurial forms in the public and policy debates and the number of policy domains in which entrepreneurship is addressed.

Policy discussions mainly address broad topics related to job creation, combating unemployment, and sustainable growth. The primary focus of policy discussions is not on renewal of the enterprise stock with the start up of more competitive and knowledge-intensive enterprises, or on innovative policies associated with entrepreneurship.

Instead discussions tend to give higher priority first to developing entrepreneurial culture or spirit, and then to the survival of start-ups. Policies to encourage innovation typically focus more on SMEs and large enterprises, although the relatively higher importance of innovation policies associated with serial entrepreneurs should be noted. As entrepreneurship also forms part of measures designed to enhance employment and employability, countries may not wish to accelerate innovative behaviour in the early start-up phases, seeing this as risky and more likely to lead to closure and job losses.

In this sense there is an inherent conflict between EU ambitions about smart growth and innovation, and the way in which entrepreneurship is also regarded as an alternative to the claiming of unemployment or disability benefits, as shown in table Table 3. The main focus of these domains tends to be where entrepreneurship meets social policy and social security, such as schemes to promote self-employment for persons with disabilities or the use of self-employment to create or enhance pension income.

Female entrepreneurship is explicitly identified by Norway and Portugal but, as described later in this survey, many other countries also have a gender dimension in some policy domains. This may indicate a trend towards more bargaining power and a greater influence over policy making for one-person enterprises and self-employed people.

Domains of policy discussion addressing both one-person enterprises and self-employment and part-time entrepreneurs are broadly similar, even though one-person enterprises are to the fore in such discussions in about twice as many countries as part-time entrepreneurs. This may indicate that the challenges connected with being either a one-person enterprise or a part-time entrepreneur are quite similar, and that there is an important overlap between these forms of entrepreneurship.

The policy domains taking account of other forms of emerging entrepreneurship are considerably fewer. However, there are two observations to be made. First, with regard to parallel and serial entrepreneurs, and to business transfer and successions, policy discussions focus primarily on economic and industrial issues. Discussions about one-person enterprises and part-time entrepreneurship are more likely to focus on labour policies.

The reported policy discussions may indicate that these particular forms of entrepreneurship often face specific financial and legal challenges affecting their taxation and ownership. The second observation is that serial entrepreneurs and business transfers and successions are more likely to be the focus of policies designed to ecnourage innovation. One explanation offered by the Swedish correspondents is that serial entrepreneurs are considered important players in the commercialisation of academic research and development through spinoffs and proof that concepts can be taken to the market, and in bringing these to a level of maturity where they can be commercialised.

As a result, serial entrepreneurs are often seen in the biotechnology area. Once a biotechnology enterprise is up and running and ready to be sold, the serial entrepreneur can start all over again. In some cases, according to a European Commission report , the entrepreneurs will not sell the entire enterprise but only the product developed by it. They will then use the same business structure to develop new products.

These models have evolved from being part of an education programme to a situation where many Swedish Universities and colleges offer various forms of incubator enterprise environments as a way of stimulating the development of highly knowledge-intensive new start-up firms.

In many countries the debate and discussions are primarily aimed at stimulating business creation in general, rather than addressing specific forms of entrepreneurship. One-person enterprises and self-employment are the exception, being typically regarded within the general debate as business start-ups requiring no employees, often as an alternative to paid employment or the claiming of unemployment benefits.

This category also finds its way into the debate in the context of political ambitions to encourage economic growth. Even though emerging forms of entrepreneurship are common in most countries, they may not be recognised in the political system, as is the case in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

In Cyprus, Greece, and Romania the debate is broad, but nonetheless has a clear focus on small family businesses in traditional sectors. However, in Cyprus, for example, issues identified in other countries as problematic for entrepreneurs, such as the administrative burden that falls on them, taxation, and the precarious nature of their work, do not seem to feature in the debate.

During the last decade, the Danish debate has been motivated by discussion about how forms of entrepreneurship may contribute to growth, and has distinguished between growth-oriented and non-growth-oriented entrepreneurs. Little attention has been paid to the differing categories of entrepreneurship analysed in this report. In France and Sweden, the debate focuses on fostering economic growth and employment through the encouragment of entrepreneurship.

In Germany, the debate is driven by the question of how to increase the number of new businesses and focuses particularly on one-person enterprises and transfer of business.

The challenges of growing a business - and how to meet them

In Ireland, public debate and policy discussions deal with categories of entrepreneurship that are not quite the same as the emerging forms of entrepreneurship that are the focus of this report. Nevertheless, the debate is driven by issues such as competitiveness, innovation and employment creation in much the same way. A similar situation can be seen in the United Kingdom with the exception here that emerging forms of entrepreneurship are explicitly discussed, and that difficulties such as administrative burdens and red tape are directly addressed.

In Italy, for example, different forms of self-employment have been debated with the aim of distinguishing between employment and self-employment, simplifying bureaucratic procedures and reforming social provisions for self-employed persons. The object is to understand and define new forms of self-employment. This debate identifies new forms of self-employment that differ from traditional ones in their socio-economic conditions and their level or lack of social security; such entrepreneurs often work as economically dependent self-employed persons under a VAT registration, on contract for the duration of a project or doing freelance work, without belonging to a professional association or having other social security protection.

The Italian debate seeks to understand the emerging forms of entrepreneurship as new categories of self-employment rather than as an intermediary process in the development of new businesses. Other countries seem to have a more traditional approach, viewing self-employment as a transitional stage between being employed and running a business with employees. In Spain, the only category of emerging entrepreneurship discussed is self-employment because the number of self-employed workers has increased.

One-person enterprises and self-employment are part of the public debate and on the political agenda in most countries, but the debate and discussion mainly revolve around labour market policies which focus on various issues:. Part-time entrepreneurship is often closely associated with the category of one-person enterprises and self-employment since the challenges of running a business are considered to be very similar in both categories; this is the view taken in the public debate in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

In Italy part-time entrepreneurs tend to be considered in the context of irregular work and the need to regulate it. The discussion about part-time entrepreneurship is often about special groups with casual connections to the labour market. Some examples of policies which target such groups include:. Education and training is not a focal point in the discussions about part-time entrepreneurship, although in Bulgaria part of the debate does focus on increasing entrepreneurial awareness and spirit as well as business skills and competences.

In Slovakia, initiatives to encourage part-time entrepreneurs to remain in business include legislation to reduce or eliminate double social insurance payments. There is little or no public and policy discussion about parallel and serial entrepreneurs in most countries. In Bulgaria, Sweden and the United Kingdom, there is no specific debate about parallel entrepreneurs. Parallel entrepreneurs are discussed in Denmark in connection with tax regulation, capital tax and administrative regulations. In Bulgaria, serial entrepreneurs are associated with business angels and spin-offs, and the discussion addresses funding such as grants, loans and equity, and new, innovative businesses.

The Swedish debate is more directly focused on the commercialisation of innovation and access to venture capital. A similar discussion is taking place in Denmark and the United Kingdom, but here it is focused on issues concerning bankruptcy and administrative regulations. In Denmark, the public debate tries to present this entrepreneurial form as a role model, whereas in the United Kingdom this category is perceived to be more commonly associated with illegal business activities.

In Cyprus, parallel entrepreneurship is discussed against a rather different background, motivated by the unfair competition inflicted by big businesses or multinational companies on SMEs when they establish subsidiary companies. These are considered to be a form of parallel entrepreneurship. Many countries, mainly among the EU15, report that the public and policy discussion of business transfers and succession has been part of the entrepreneurial debate.

In Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom, the discussion is very closely linked to the transfer of family businesses from one generation to another, with the focus on not only securing the future of a business but also its employment capacity. Some countries such as Denmark, Germany, Italy and Norway offer counselling about business succession between generations, and in Sweden specific policies ease the administrative procedures. In the United Kingdom, the discussion has highlighted the issue of the inheritance tax that becomes due when a business is transferred to relatives and which, it is argued, is unfair and financially damaging.

In Denmark, business transfers and succession are also linked to a discussion about the market-based transfers of enterprises, such as innovative technology-oriented enterprises being sold to multinationals. In eastern and central European countries business transfers and successions are associated with privatisation during the transition period, as in Bulgaria. In Estonia, this entrepreneurial form has also been affected by a discussion about the implementation of the EU Council Directive on safeguarding employees in the case of business transfers.

In Romania, the discussion focuses on reducing illegal business and tax evasion and on encouraging more transparent business deals. New legislation and industrial support schemes offering financial support or consultancy services to entrepreneurs have been put into effect as a result of the ongoing debate about entrepreneurship. Several different initiatives have been set up to support one-person enterprises and self-employment, in particular to encourage job creation, but also to attract specific target groups to entrepreneurship such as young persons, female entrepreneurs and people with disabilities and people with a higher education.

However, as one-person enterprises and self-employment are often seen as a first stage of developing an enterprise, the initiatives are not solely or explicitly designed for this particular form of entrepreneurship but are aimed at entrepreneurs in general.

Emerging forms of entrepreneurship | Eurofound

Nevertheless, as these initiatives are relevant for one-person enterprises and self-employment, they are presented below. Among the main barriers to establishing new enterprises are the lack of access to capital, unhelpful tax regimes and fiscal schemes or complex labour market regulations. Several countries have initiated different kinds of economic incentives to mitigate these difficulties. Many countries have changed business legislation and administrative procedures and have set up simpler regulations for establishing and running a business. Beyond consultancy and entrepreneurial training, other education initiatives have been introduced.

Basic business studies have been included in the curriculum in upper secondary education in the Czech Republic, and training schemes for self-employed entrepreneurs to improve their business skills and competences and strengthen an entrepreneurial culture have been introduced in Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Romania.

The entrepreneurship debate has increased policy awareness of part-time entrepreneurs in Bulgaria. In several countries it has also resulted in changed labour market or social security regulations and a more favourable tax regime for this group. In Denmark, discussions about this category of entrepreneurs have led to simplified administrative regulations, easier access to capital, and a change in public attitudes towards this kind of entrepreneurship.

A network of business angels has been established in Bulgaria with the intention of providing a support structure for serial entrepreneurs. The network not only provides access to capital but also to managerial and entrepreneurial skills, since business angels have typically been involved in several business start ups of their own. In Denmark and the United Kingdom, the debate has resulted in more efficient bankruptcy regulations, making it easier to re-enter business after a bankruptcy.

In Denmark this also includes simplified administrative rules and easier access to capital. Sweden has launched a business promotion scheme that targets serial entrepreneurship. It is part of an innovation, commercialisation and technology transfer scheme and it offers better access to capital.

This scheme is aimed at a more efficient commercialisation of research results through the transfer of research ideas to business. It may include that transfer of ownership of the business idea, but researchers and entrepreneurs may also go on to develop new research based business. The available statistics cover many different sources of information, and the methods for gathering data vary considerably from country to country. The sources include data from public registers such as business, trade or commercial registers, tax and social security registers, censuses of enterprises or of the population, and surveys.

Typically, business statistics are based on register data while demographic statistics about entrepreneurs are survey-based, using the Labour Force Survey methodology. In most countries, the main source of entrepreneurial statistics is the national statistical office. However, these statistics are typically produced by using register data such as business registers, social security data, tax data or censuses and surveys focusing on different aspects of entrepreneurship, and this makes the statistics less comparable.

Denmark and Sweden appear to be the only countries where the same organisation gathers statistical figures for all indicators based on register data, and where there are extensive possibilities for crosstabulating data and even combining business and demographic figures. The Netherlands is planning to establish a similar service. Other data sources are public and private registers, such as lists of members available from chambers of commerce. The statistical data is typically available free of charge in most countries, but a fee must be paid to make advanced use of the data.

The availability of standardised statistical data on the five emerging forms of entrepreneurship has been analysed based on statistical variables within business statistics see Table 4 and demographic statistics of the entrepreneur see Table 5. Observations can be made concerning the availability of statistical data about the five emerging forms of entrepreneurship:. If business and demographic data are available, it is typically not possible to combine the two sets of data except where the data are based on the same survey, e.

In the Netherlands, the Central Statistical Office is planning to establish a similar statistical system so that it becomes possible to crosstabulate the business and demographic statistics of the entrepreneur. There is considerable variation across Europe in how often statistical data are updated, in the time series they cover, and in sectoral and regional breakdown.

The accessible data for one-person enterprises and self-employment are used to illustrate these differences, since this form of emerging entrepreneurship has the best statistical coverage. For 17 countries, the statistical data is available on an annual basis, and half of those countries report that some of the statistical variables are also accessible on a monthly or quarterly basis. In Cyprus, some of the data are based on a census of enterprises carried out every five years, and in Slovakia the statistics have only been compiled once.

The data source typically determines its time series since administrative data are updated continuously, for instance, monthly or quarterly, while register data are updated once a year, and censuses and surveys are often carried out once a year or even less frequently. The length of time series has changed over the last 50 years, but in the s and s the production of statistical data about entrepreneurship became more common, and by the s entrepreneurial data was being gathered in almost all countries.

The authors have investigated the sectoral and regional breakdown for one-person enterprises and self-employment. As seen in the table in Annex E, the level of breakdown of data available is seen to be particularly heterogeneous when taking into account:. To summarise, then, the widely differing variables within national statistics and differences in data collection methods give only very limited possibilities for analysis between the full range of countries examined by this survey, and then only for the main category of one-person enterprises and self-employment.

The authors have identified national studies and research for each of the five emerging forms of entrepreneurship for all the countries by searching the following sources:. The overall focus of research generally follows national discussions. Twenty-one countries report research focusing on one-person enterprises and self-employment. Only five countries have indentified research publications focusing on part-time entrepreneurs, while four countries have identified research on parallel entrepreneurs, seven countries on serial entrepreneurs and eight countries on business transfer and successions.

Most of the identified research has been conducted within the last five years. Many studies have been carried out particularly in France and Italy over the last few years, while few have addressed the subject in the United Kingdom in the last five years. The methodology used for gathering new data typically consists of surveys and other forms of interviews although a few studies are based on register statistics or administrative databases.

Research projects typically study the motivation, characteristics, behaviour, development and performance of the entrepreneurs as well as the challenges they face. Studies of one-person enterprises and self-employment can be categorised either as having a general entrepreneurial focus or addressing specific issues for one-person-enterprises and self-employment.