A survey in which students from the “I Have an Idea” program participated found that the lack of money, but also the lack of good business ideas, together with general disinterest for entrepreneurship, are the main reasons for which young people rarely decide to start their own business in B&H.
Other findings of the study point to the weakness of the existing educational system in terms of carrying the necessary knowledge related to entrepreneurship to young people, along with the chronic lack of possibilities for its practical use. Also, there is significant unevenness in the accessibility of programs of support to young people in various phases of business initialization, from an idea initiation to its realization.
Examples of successful support measures for young entrepreneurs that are implemented in other countries (some of them stated in the study) can serve as a good basis for the development of a system of support to the same target group in B&H. By respecting successful examples of others and bearing in mind the findings of the carried research, a string of recommendations has been defined for decision makers in order to improve mechanisms of institutional support to young people who wish to start their own business.
Basic recommendations of this research document can be summed up as follows:
- To introduce changes in the educational systems of FB&H and RS, especially in elementary and secondary education, that would enable young people to develop their entrepreneurial skills on time.
- To decrease costs and to significantly simplify the process of registration of all legal forms of business activity.
- To use an initiative that will coordinate activities undertaken by domestic institutions to develop the inexistent system support to newly founded firms after they have entered the market for the first time.
- To support the development of a network of “business angels” as one of successful models of connecting new business ideas with investment capital and expert support.
- To create financial measures in the public sector directly focused on support to young newly registered entrepreneurs.
- To strengthen the promotion of positive examples of successful entrepreneurs among young people in B&H.
Complete findings of the research together with detailed recommendations can be found here.