Recent Worldwide Trends in

Entrepreneurship











Christine J. Baleje
BSBA HRDM IV -1
Submitted to : Juniper Zulueta






















More innovative financing options, such as crowd funding,
are now available to entrepreneurs worldwide.
A new breed of entrepreneurs is emerging.
Akosua Dardaine Edwards, founder of the Enabling
Enterprise Project, examines some of the recent trends
within entrepreneurship, considering the rise in female
entrepreneurs, the increasing and more innovative financing
methods available, and the rise of social entrepreneurship.

Over the last decade, entrepreneurship has come to the fore, not simply as a means of job creation and
reviving the economy, but also as a means of introducing new ways of thinking and problem solving. Some experts
have also suggested that entrepreneurship ought to be a way of life.
This article explores some of the trends within entrepreneurship which have emerged over the last decade, and their
impact.
Women in Entrepreneurship
According to the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, an estimated 126 million women
were starting or running new businesses in 67 economies around the world in 2013. In addition, an estimated 98
million were running established businesses. These women are not only creating jobs for themselves and their co-
founders, but are also employing others.
This is the highest increase in a decade, indicating that the entrepreneurial landscape has indeed shifted throughout
the globe with the addition of these women
Financing of Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship
Over the last decade, the options available to entrepreneurs to finance their businesses have not only
increased, but have also become more innovative and non-traditional. One example of this is crowdfunding, where
businesses are funded through a large number of small donations in return for equity, interest payments or a lovely
thank you.
Crowd funding has become quite popular, particularly with the rise of social media and social entrepreneurial
ventures.
Micro financing is another method that has worked well, particularly in developing economies; small loans with high
interest rates are given to women in particular, enabling these female entrepreneurs to start their micro enterprises.
Bootstrapping is another method made popular by women, where creative methods are used to start and run an
enterprise, such as using family and friends as employees, using credit cards to fund growth, scheduling payments to
be made at the most optimum time, and bartering.





Social Entrepreneurship
The rise of businesses that solve social problems; or those that find innovative methods to make profits,
whilst keeping in mind the impact on the community within which they operate.
Social entrepreneurs look not only at profit, but also at the role they play in improving lives and the world overall.
Akosua Dardaine Edwards is the founder of the Enabling Enterprise Project. The Enabling Enterprise Project is a
progressive and interactive pilot project, which aims to partner Caribbean and international womens business
support agencies, policy makers and women entrepreneurs from all over the world, for the enhancement,
empowerment, exchange of ideas and experience, and best practice of womens enterprise and entrepreneurship
worldwide.
Akosua has worked throughout many countries, including Uganda, Tanzania, India, the United Kingdom, and her
native Trinidad and Tobago, with women and youth entrepreneurs, combining her expertise of entrepreneurship,
empowerment and transformation
Image courtesy of reniith krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Reference: http://www.thenextwomen.com/2014/04/28/recent-worldwide-trends-
entrepreneurship#sthash.Hf3Vvhao.dpuf
















Five Up-And-Coming Tech Trends
for Entrepreneurs
By Robert Sofia, cofounder/C.O.O., Platinum Advisor Strategies.

Business is evolving online with breakneck speed. Enterprising and forward-thinking
entrepreneurs will follow the hottest trends and find ways to capitalize on them. Every great tech
company in existence today is there because someone saw an opportunity and capitalized on it,
and the future promises to bring many more great companies to fruition. Whether youre
interested in building an online empire yourself, or in investing in progressive companies, here
are five trends that offer limitless potential.
Self-Directed Learning
Todays youth are catching onto a new trend in education, coined unschooling or education
hacking among its champions. Pioneers of this trend favor a mix-and-match, choose-your-own-
adventure approach to learning, swapping stuffy classrooms for real-life experiences,
internships and travel, as well as unconventional methods of guided learning such as online
courses and electives.
Authority blogs, products, and online courses catering to this ambitious young crowd will be a hit
for the foreseeable future. With the widespread popularity of Massive Open Online Courses
(MOOCs) and subscription-based services like Lynda.com, e-learning is taking the Internet by
storm, and there are plenty of untapped niches to be dominated in the online learning space.
DIY Web Technology
Many people have had a great idea for an app, but lack the resources or expertise to bring their
idea to life. Fortunately, the future of web development is all about affordability and
convenience. The growing appeal of timesavers like Twitters Bootstrap framework is paving the
way for a new era of opportunity for tech-savvy entrepreneurs.
Where complex, robust web solutions are required, WordPress plugins just arent cutting
it. Turnkey website solutions ready-made freelance bidding sites or social media platforms,
for instance allow serial entrepreneurs to try out a new business model without paying
several thousands of dollars in development fees. As a result, there is a growing market for
third-party scripts, out-of-the-box apps and plugins.
Additionally, do-it-yourself types are beginning to see the value in cutting out the middleman and
investing in web development skills. Teach-yourself-to-code resources and interactive
programming tutorials will be in high demand going forward.
High-Ticket Gadgets
(Photo credit: tedeytan)
With the economy recovering and
consumer discretionary spending on
the upswing, the coming years are
going to be huge for tech. 3D printing,
information security, and ultra-high-
definition TV are among the hottest
trends to watch. Wearables like
smartwatches, Google Glass, and
health and fitness products are also
gaining popularity.
Entrepreneurs can get a head start on advancing tech trends by creating websites and blogs
educating readers about the latest technologies, offering price comparisons on new releases,
and collecting affiliate commissions on high-ticket items.
Content Creation Services
Incidentally, this is the business Im in, and my company grew over 1,700 percent during the
past three years, ranking #362 on the Inc. 500 list. The demand for content that entertains,
informs and converts is greater than ever. In the past, content providers have been notorious for
lowballing rates and generating massive amounts of low-quality content intended to exploit
search engine crawlers. While this may have been effective in the early 2000s, Googles
Penguin update has been largely successful in demoting websites that attempt to rank with
keyword-stuffing and other black hat techniques.
Entrepreneurs who focus on providing quality over quantity will win out in the content creation
game. Theres plenty of room to niche it down either by media type (text, images,
infographics, video) or function (email, sales copy, blog posts, press releases).

B2B Marketing Consulting
With digital marketing evolving at such a rapid rate, its time-consuming for marketing
departments to keep track of what really counts. Entrepreneurs who have expertise in the areas
of lead generation and conversion rate optimization will find their skills welcome.
With last years changes to Googles algorithm and the move to secure search, SEO has taken
on a new face in 2014. Once considered largely separate disciplines, SEO, social media and
content marketing are joining forces in a common cause. Marketing consultants will therefore be
expected to offer a multifaceted approach to marketing online.
Opportunity abounds, particularly in the area of web analytics. The days of relying on keyword
metrics to gauge a websites performance are bygone, with emphasis now being placed on Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as conversion rates and user experience metrics.
Finally, with mobile ad spending continuing to see exponential growth, the most successful
marketing consultants will incorporate mobile marketing techniques into their overall strategy.
With more and more people turning to the Internet to find solutions to their everyday problems,
business opportunity has never been so diverse. Entrepreneurs who move quickly without
compromising quality can confidently expect to succeed in 2014 and beyond.
Robert Sofia is a best-selling author, award winning public speaker, and financial industry
thought leader. He is the cofounder and C.O.O of Platinum Advisor Strategies - ranked #362 on
the INC 5,000 list of Americas fastest growing privately owned companies, and #10 on the
Agency 100 list of the nations fastest growing agencies.
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the worlds
most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently
launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of
entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.