Entrepreneurs: or should we just sayself-employed and struggling?

How the portrayal of ‘entrepreneurship’ is a positive spin on the poorest and most vulnerable members of society

In October 2013, David Cameron, UK Prime Minster, addressed a crowd of business moguls. During which, he sung a chorus of praise towards the nations entrepreneurs; hailing them as national heros and evoking images of innovation and technology-driven productivity, owing much of the economic recovery to their efforts.

What he fails to mention, however, are that many of these are forced into self-employment through lack of alternatives, to paper over cracks in their CVs, to appear active in the labour market (while looking for work), and to keep up appearances with peers and society.

‘Entrepreneur’ is after all, a glamorous synonym for ‘self-employed’.

Self employment represents people who exist without the salaries, benefits and social protection that regular employees enjoy. The exist without the pensions, the healthcare and the regular flow of income.

So, when a politician says ‘we’re investing in entrepreneurship’ you can usually translate this to: ‘we can’t provide jobs, so we’d encourage you to go it alone’.

Multiply the deprivation by 1000 times or more when you apply it to developing nations.

It is not uncommon for developing countries to recognize ‘begging’ as self employment, and therefore as entrepreneurship.

According to the UN, 840 million people, equivalent to over a quarter of the world’s employed, are recognised as working poor — i.e. despite working, they and their families are unable to exist on more than $2 a day.

Just so happens, that a similar share of the world’s employed are ‘self employed’.

So yes, entrepreneurs are national heroes. But for governments to encourage entrepreneurship, this should be backed by investment in innovation and skills, and broadened provision of social security for the self-employed.

It would be nice if the self-employed themselves could benefit from their status as ‘entrepreneurs’ as much as the government’s unemployment data.

To read more about entrepreneurship and startups in the developing world, follow us on twitter here @DevStartups

Headline photo attributed to Namphuong Van. Downloaded from unsplash.com