James Bream
Warren Buffet once said that risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.
The inherent truth in this observation appears to have been borne out in research carried out for North East Business Week last week.
We spoke to businesses across the region on the subject of entrepreneurship and it revealed some interesting views on the subject of risk.
Unsurprisingly, only seven per cent said they were risk-averse, but only 23 per cent described themselves as risk-takers.
Now, most definitions of entrepreneur use the word “risk”. I know this because I checked.
Most of us would see starting up a new venture as a route fraught with dangers, both known and unknown.
So it is interesting that 70 per cent of those who have set up a business see themselves as risk-neutral, which led me to muse upon different perspectives around risk.
These business people have taken the risks so glaringly obvious to the rest of us but clearly mitigated them through research, experience and hard work to such a degree that they no longer consider them risks.
Consequently, they view the risks involved in setting up and running a business as acceptable, and see them as “neutral”.
Entrepreneurs would go off the diving board, a very high one but they’d be sure of the water depth and temperature beforehand.
It’s all to do with your perspective.
At one of the North East Business Week events last week, a highly successful local entrepreneur said that he doesn’t ever feel that the decision to start any of his businesses was high risk.
He didn’t always get it right, but he said that entrepreneurs are people who move faster, often in the opposite direction from everyone else and they learn faster from their mistakes.
One of the more optimistic findings in the North East Business Week research is that 77% of businesses owners agree that now is a good time to start a new business.
Aberdeen may be having a tough time at the moment, but it is a dynamic place in terms of business start-ups.
The Centre for Cities Outlook for 2016 found Aberdeen was the top city in Scotland for start-ups, and eighth overall in the UK.
Indeed, in the last 12 months, there were 1,276 business start-ups in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, figures which will be the envy of most regions.
Strong city economies depend on the dynamism of businesses and entrepreneurs. The overall number of businesses in a city and the rates at which businesses are starting up and closing down are key indicators of the health of a city’s economy.
North East Business Week celebrated the role of the entrepreneur and the contribution they make to the region.
• This year’s North East Business Week ran from April 18-22, and was delivered in partnership with Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, Elevator, the Federation of Small Businesses, and the Scottish Council for Development & Industry.
A summary of the week can be seen at www.northeastbusinessweek.co.uk
James Bream is research and policy director at Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here