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The overwhelming majority of the richest people of the world are involved in entrepreneurship in one way or another. It is almost impossible to reach the highest income ranks as a wage earner. An exception to that rule is individuals who are world class in some professions. For example best actors, singers, and professional athletes. In other cases you have to do some business in order to become ultimately rich.

Only a relatively small number of people deal with entrepreneurship. Although the entrepreneurial activity is different in different countries, the number of self-employed is roughly 10% of the employed in the western countries. It means that only one out of ten deals with business and the rest of people are employees. Why so few people choose entrepreneurship, when it is practically the only way of getting very rich. One reason is the fact that although some business-owners are extremely wealthy, on the average the self-employed are not much richer than employees. There are many small businessmen all over the world which have not created a decent income despite the fact that they have dealt with their businesses for several years. Some people do not earn anything form entrepreneurship, their businesses go broke and the entrepreneurs loose their investments, which in many cases come from their personal savings.

The second reason for such a low share of entrepreneurs is a widely spread belief that most people are not good in doing business their personality is not suitable for that. This can be used for explaining the fact that many businessmen are unsuccessful and cannot reach high earnings. Usually the personal traits which are required for doing business successfully are the following

• Desire for achievement and will-power. Entrepreneurship requires continuous and goal-oriented action. There will always be drawbacks and it may take some time to gain success. Doing business is suitable for those who like to commit them themselves to achieving results in longer perspective.
• Desire for independence. Entrepreneur is his own boss, in many cases his quite individualistic by his nature. Entrepreneurship is not suitable for people who like chatting with colleagues and passing time doing nothing. If there is no boss, it means that no one will give you detailed orders what you have to do, the entrepreneur has to decide it on his own.
• Self-confidence and optimism. Entrepreneurship is about making choices. What is the best price for your product? How to advertise your product? How many and what kind of employees do you need? How much you will pay them? An entrepreneur has to make such decisions every day. If you are indecisive or sceptic about future then it is difficult to be a businessman. Entrepreneur has to pursue its goals without being too much worried about the possibility of failure. Entrepreneur has to pursue profits not avoid losses.
• Risk tolerance and eagerness to act in uncertain situations. No business is completely risk-free. Although preparation, gathering information and commitment to your business will reduce the risks, there is no possibility to totally eliminate them. Entrepreneur’s income is unstable over the years, one year he may earn millions of profit, the next year he may get losses. If you like stable and fixed income, then entrepreneurship is not for you.
• Inclination to fast decisions and action. The world is changing faster and faster. Entrepreneur can not wait long with his management decisions or the competitors will be ahead of him. In doing business, there is frequently not enough time for sophisticated analysis, but you have to make a good enough decision during a short period of time.

Most of people think that those kinds of traits are inborn or at least formed in childhood or youth and therefore people, who are lacking these characteristics, think that they are not suitable for entrepreneurship. In fact, as far as they do not possess these characteristics doing business may not be successful for them. But actually it is possible to develop entrepreneurial traits even if you are grown-up. First of all it means altering your thinking. We can change our attitudes towards risk. We can develop diligence and dedication. We can train ourselves to make fast decisions. We can get used to unstable earnings. We can make a habit of acting without orders of the boss. If we think a little then we find that we can acquire all those characteristics, which were listed above. Of course, the question is that are we ready to change ourselves and do we want to work hard on that. If yes, then we can be successful entrepreneurs.

kristjan Business business skills, doing business, earnings, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, personality

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The ongoing global economic crises started from the real estate crises. During the last year too much real estate was developed in many countries all over the world. That real estate has dropped sharply in its value by now. During the real estate boom many houses were built on purpose for earning a short-term profit as the real estate prices increased rapidly. Now the situation has changed and the question is what will be the value of real estate in the future. Although it is difficult to predict future real estate prices, some general trends which will have an impact on the real estate prices in somewhat longer perspective (5-10 year), can be outlines. Next I will present the most important developments, which will affect the demand and prices of residential property during the next decade.

Our time will become more and more valuable. First, it is caused by the fact that our earnings increase in the long-run and it means that we can earn more and more money with our time. Second, as the income increases, individuals have more possibilities for leisure activities, which is require time for doing that. It is not likely that people will be happy to spend their valuable leisure moments on household tasks. Therefore people will prefer more and more that kind of housing, which does not require too much time for housekeeping activities. The heating system is also important. If the it is not based on an automated solution, which requires active human participation in the heating process, for example, oven heating, then it will not match the life style of a time valuing person.

The location of the real estate is also related the increasing value of time. If your home is far from your job, schools, kindergartens, shopping centres, sporting facilities etc., then a reasonable amount of time is spent on commuting. The more people value their time, the less they are willing to waste time on travelling from one place to another. So it can be argued, that the location of real estate will become even more essential in the future. As people are travelling more and more to foreign countries both for work and leisure, then the international connections of the location are becoming important. How far is it from the airports, how many direct flights departures from the nearest airport? How good is the railway connection with foreign countries?

Holiday in foreign countries will become more affordable and popular. Our jobs will also become more time and location flexible and it is possible that short time stays in foreign countries will become regular for many of us. For example a web designer or accountant can live for a month or two to a warm and sunny place like Hawaii or Thailand during the winter months and he can do this work over the distance using information and telecommunication technology.. This leads to a fact that people will spend in their homes less time. This can create two trends. First, using their homes less means that people are willing to pay less money for that, which can lead to a change in preferences toward cheaper housing. As at the same time the location of the property will become more important, it could lead to increased demand for small apartments in good location. Secondly, it people stay away from home for longer periods, it makes profitable for them to rent out their home when they are away. So if the house or apartment well suited for renting it could increase its value.

Family relationships will become more unstable and they will have shorter duration. The new generation will value more freedom and variety. The starting age of long-term cohabitation will increase, the greater share of young people will attend foreign universities, work in foreign countries and the youth will travel more to foreign countries. If the present economic crises will become too long, then it could decrease the birth rate. If the number of kids in families is smaller then the demand for large houses will be lower.

Among demographical processes the aging of the population will have also an impact on real estate demand. If the share of elderly population increases, then their preferences will affect the real estate more and more. What kind of real estate is demanded by old-aged people? Usually they need less living space than the younger ones, well functioning public transport system and peaceful environment have great importance for them. They do not care so much about the modern design, so they are reluctant to live in older houses, especially if it is cheaper.

Besides aging population and low birth rates the European countries have a problem of high and continuously increasing labour costs, which create a demand for using cheaper foreign labour. The cross-boarder labour mobility will increase in the future. As labour mobility means more changes of residence, then it will foster the development of rental real estate market as more and more people will benefit more from renting instead of buying real estate.

In conclusion, it can be argued that in the future there will be increased demand for more flexible real estate solutions, which correspond well to continuously changing lifestyles and preferences. People will change their homes more than before during their lifetime. Therefore real estate, which can be easily sold or rented, will gain more value in the future.

kristjan Business earnings, household tasks

In 20th century most people worked as employees and only about 10% of employed were entrepreneurs. Traditionally the job an employee has been restricted both by time and space. The wage earner worked from 9 AM to 5 PM 5 days a week. He had a working place provided by his employer. His boss told him what exactly his tasks are, gave him these tasks, monitored his performance and evaluated him. Usually the employee received a fixed pay, for example $2000 in a month. In same cases he may have earned premiums or bonuses for good performance or just for Christmas. Still the fixed pay made up the biggest share of his earnings.

In 21st century the jobs will be different. The situation of employees will be come more similar to the situation of entrepreneurs. First, the employees will not have so strictly limited tasks than before. The employees are expected to find creative solutions to problems rather than dealing with specific tasks. It means that employees will have more freedom and responsibilities like the entrepreneurs have. Additionally, the jobs will become more time and space flexible. For example, if the firm expects the employee to design an advertising booklet for his client, then it is really not important when and where the employee does this job. Of course, it is important that he will finish the booklet by the deadline agreed with the client. But it does not matter how much time the employee spends for that project or what time does he work on it, it is irrelevant whether he works on it on Monday from 9 AM to 5 PM or Saturday night from 1 AM to 7 AM. Similarly, it makes no difference if the works on it in the office in London or on Mallorca beach. What matters is the result. It does not even matter if he designs the booklet himself or if he outsources that work. That kind of developments mean that the employee will have more control over his time and activities and the boss will control him less then in the past. What matters is achieving excellent results on time.

Second, if the employee’s job becomes more results-based, then his monetary rewards for it must be also more results-based. Traditionally employers have paid their employees previously agreed fixed pay. That kind of stable pay has been relatively risk-free for employees as if the employee’s performance is at least satisfactory then he has always received his pay check. That kind of pay system is not very motivating and it does not drive the employees to work with efficiently and find solutions for earnings more revenues for the company. The entrepreneur has never had a fixed income, for him it has been always necessary to put in effort for offering better products and services, but if successful there have been chances for him to earn a big fortune. Now the things have started to changes as pay systems, where the wages are related to performance are more widely used. That kind of trend is likely to continue in the future. It is also possible that employees are offered more profit-sharing schemes in the future.

What does it mean for you? It means that in future you have to be able to manage and plan your time and work efficiently for being successful on your job. The employee has to think on his own how he will reach his goals, what kind of resources he will use for that, at what time does he work, how much does he work and whether he work himself or outsources some of the tasks. There will be not so many so called warm places in the future, where the employee has little work to do and it is possible to earn wage without effort. Those kinds of job are inefficient and harmful to economy. For private businesses, they lead to high production costs, which will force the firm out of business if the competition becomes more and more global and intense. In public sector, the existence of these jobs wastes the tax payers’ money and cause budget deficits.

What kind of news we hear everyday in relation with the global economic crisis? The companies are downsizing, governments are cutting cost. Firms are restructuring their processes, making them more efficient and productive. This will change the nature of the jobs too. In efficient jobs will abolish, there will be no easy options for earning money for lazy employees any more. Is it good or bad? For those who like doing nothing it is sad news, but it is also a good opportunity for those who like pursuing higher goals. Future jobs will give employees more freedom and responsibility; they will offer more possibilities for personal development and give good pay according to the employees’ performance. The chances for successful employees to earn very high wages will increase. So far those kinds of options have been privileges of entrepreneurs, but soon they will be more and more available for wage earners.

kristjan Business earnings, flexibility, job, wages, working time