A new survey released Tuesday indicates the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Alberta.
Almost 90 per cent of respondents surveyed by ATB Financial’s Business Beat, which surveys small and mid-sized businesses, said they prefer running their own businesses. Eighty per cent of those surveyed transitioned from being an employee, meaning that they got to see both sides of the coin.
“I rarely run into entrepreneurs who would ever say anything like, ‘I shouldn’t have done this’, or ‘I wish I had a normal life.’ Most entrepreneurs I meet are pretty proud,” Wellington Holbrook, ATB’s executive vice-president of business and agriculture, said in a statement.
Albertan entrepreneurs own an average of 2.4 businesses, with men owning an average of 2.7 businesses and women owning an average of 1.8, the survey found.
Survey responses indicated that 26 per cent of male entrepreneurs started a business between 18-24 years of age versus nine per cent of women. Twenty per cent of men started a business between 35-44 years of age versus 31 per cent of women.
Entrepreneurs, the survey found, are torn right down the middle about whether entrepreneurial spirit is something you are born with or can learn. Among business owners who started their own enterprise before their 25th birthday, 60 per cent said you have to be born with it.
“It’s got to be a little bit in your blood, but I think everyone’s got it. The question is, do you let the entrepreneur out?” Holbrook said. “Ultimately, it comes down to your tolerance for risk. If you have no tolerance for risk, you’re not going to be a successful entrepreneur.”
Meanwhile, the ATB Business Index and ATB Economy Index are both rebounding after hitting lows recently, the Crown corporation said in a statement. The economy index, which measures how business owners feel about Alberta’s economy, is at 32.3, up 13.1 points from the previous survey. The business index, which measures business owners’ optimism in their own operations, is at 47.3, up 2.7 points from the last survey.
The ATB Business Beat survey is conducted four times per year to take the pulse of small and mid-sized businesses.