What role will entrepreneurs play in the economy over the next 5-10 years? This is our Question of the Week. As such, I’d really appreciate your feedback. So please, share your comments, insight and perspective in the comments section below. But first, let’s see if I can spur some thought.

Elon Musk is Buying Twitter for $44 Billion

While the free speech issues surrounding Twitter may not have much to do with your business directly, today’s development should definitely be of interest to small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Why?

Consider these points:

• Elon Musk is only 50 years old and he’s worth $265 billion. Obviously, he knows a bit about running a business (SpaceX, Tesla). Small business owners should watch and learn as he makes changes to Twitter.
• Changes Musk makes to Twitter are likely to have an impact to business owners and brands that use or don’t use the site.
• Musk’s purchase of Twitter could have a ripple effect on other social media platforms.

Read more at SmallBizTrends.com

Investopedia addresses how entrepreneurship affects the economy as promoting economic growth, even if positive effects are sometimes overhyped. It goes on to list four key points for consideration:

• Entrepreneurship refers to the “pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled.”
• Entrepreneurship has become increasingly socially conscious, taking stock of the impact of entrepreneurial activity on societal issues and tending to view the possibility of addressing those issues as an important function of entrepreneurship.
• The impact of entrepreneurs on economic growth is overall positive, though it may be more mixed than its proponents realize with evidence pointing towards widely different results within different sectors of the economy.
• The evidence of how effective socially conscious innovations have been at solving the issues they tackle historically has been mixed.

In an eye-opening article, The Future of Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century, the author, Dr. Srikanth Gaddam points at some of the trends and changes we have seen throughout the business world over the past few years, and what those changes could mean for potential entrepreneurs looking to start their own business ventures in 2020 (and beyond), as well as how those changes could affect the future of entrepreneurship going forward. He lists them as:

The Rise of the Social Enterprise – there has been a sharp increase in the social awareness of consumers and the desire to contribute to businesses who use a percentage of their profits to help a range of deserving causes, and this change in habits has paved the way for a new kind of business venture. These businesses are known as social enterprises and are driven by purpose rather than profit, with a goal of improving the lives of others – and they’re most certainly becoming more and more common in today’s vast business landscape. 

The Impotrance of Digital Trends – aspiring entrepreneurs should certainly keep a keen eye on is the changing trends appearing within their potential consumer base. These trends can then be used to better market products or businesses towards the target demographic, leading to an all-important increase in sales and overall growth of the brand – or they could even be the thing that directs target audience toward the business [idea] in the first place.

Growth of Platforms – there has been a sharp increase in the establishing of businesses that operate using the platform model. A platform is a business model in which the company relies on building a large and prominent user base in order to grow, achieve prominence and maintain long-term success.

Dr. Srikanth Gaddam wraps up his article with, “Overall, there has never been a better time to set up your own business, as long as you can keep up with the trends and stand out among the rest. You could be the entrepreneur behind the next global cultural phenomenon.”

In 2017, a similar question was asked on Quora – What will the future of entrepreneurship look like 10 years from now? What is your advice for young entrepreneurs?

A response from a founder, brand consultant & teacher:

“The future of Entrepreneurship in 10 years looks very promising. Technology and the information age that we are currently in is paving the way and enabling people to become Founders and CEOs at a higher rate and a younger age than our parents did-I’m speaking about the Millennials. Anyone born after 1982. Starting a business and failing was catastrophic for them, and it would be for some today, but it is easier to rebound from a failed venture today. Don’t ever be afraid to fail, it’s called learning. And you can’t prosper without it. Just don’t make the same mistakes three times. My advice as a Brand Consultant that consults Entrepreneurs every day, don’t put your eggs all in one basket. Don’t start a business and not love what you do and be willing to put the blood, sweat and tears into it.”

I hope the information shared above has helped to spur some thoughts in your own mind about entrepreneurship and especially its role as we face economic uncertainty, a changing business landscape, social issues of the day and so much more.

So, back to our Question of the Week – What role will entrepreneurs play in the economy over the next 5-10 years?