Male, graduated, between 35 and 50 years old, driven by the desire for personal fulfillment and the pursuit of success. This is the identikit of the new entrepreneur in 2015, outlined by the Study Center of Unioncamere within the Excelsior Project, sponsored by the Ministry of Labour. Most of the new businesses born this year did not need large resources: 3 out of 4 entrepreneurs started by investing less than 10.000 euros for their start-up, while the greatest difficulties for new entrepreneurs arose from the crisis or from difficult procedures administrative.
The survey, carried out on companies registered in the Registers of the Chambers of Commerce, indicates that 42% of the total registrations concern activities created completely from scratch, while the remainder is represented by changes of legal form, location, spin-offs or new acquisitions.
Young, prepared, seeking affirmation
The data, based on the total number of enrollments in the first six months of the year, indicate that the founders of a new business were mainly men (71,2%), with a diploma (48,5%) or a degree (18,6 %) in your pocket. 44,2% are between 36 and 50 years old, but a good 37% are under 35 years old. In setting up their own business, 64,4% of new entrepreneurs focused on a service activity, mainly in the commercial sector (31,4%) and in business services (20,4%). Construction, on the other hand, represents 19,4% of new businesses, agriculture 8,5% and manufacturing 7,7%.
The South (33,3%) contends with the North-West (26,2%) for the primacy of new businesses in the first half of this year, while smaller shares are recorded in the Center (20,6%) and in the North East (19,9%).
Previous experience as an employed person, as a journeyman or apprentice or as an employee constitutes the background about 37% of new entrepreneurs. Starting a business then constituted a concrete job opportunity for almost 14% of previously unemployed individuals. while the share of those who started a business looking for a first job stops at 8,7%.
Self-realization is the main motivation for doing business. In fact, it is reported by almost 60% of new "company captains", while self-employment is reported in 28,7% of cases.
Limits and difficulties
Although armed with high hopes, the new entrepreneurs started with limited economic resources: 52,4% of the new businesses, in fact, started with an initial investment of a maximum of 5 euros. A further 22,6% counted on 5-10 thousand euros, while 11% on 50-20,2 thousand euros. Lastly, 4,8% invested over 50 euros in their start-up. The small size of the new businesses is also reflected in the juridical form chosen: in 82,9% of cases they are sole proprietorships, while only 11,9% are more structured corporations.
Despite the spirit of initiative and confidence in one's own abilities, starting the business was difficult in 9 out of 10 cases. Although improving, economic trends continue to be perceived as the most incisive brake on one's initiative (in 15,7, 15,1% of cases), but bureaucratic procedures follow shortly (with 12% of reports of impediment). Barriers related to competition and product positioning mechanisms on the market both account for more than 8,4%, probably also because only in a third of cases a market analysis was carried out before undertaking the initiative. Difficulties related to the tax system account for 5,5%, while onerous labor costs are a constraint only in 7,1% of cases. Finally, the lack of capital and economic resources (5,8%) which certainly makes it difficult to obtain credit from banks (XNUMX%).
The recruitment of the "real" new companies
Newly born businesses that plan to hire staff are 15,3% of the total. That one of the most strategic areas to configure in the phases immediately following the start of activities is that dedicated to managing relations with the market, is also confirmed by the concentration of no less than 47% of hirings in marketing and sales functions. On the other hand, 25,2% of recruitments are dedicated to the production and logistics area.
New hires will be offered a permanent contract in 28 cases out of 100 and recourse to apprenticeship contracts is also high, which will cover around 22% of hires. Most of them will be high school graduates (61,1%) or university graduates (17,5%).
