It’s heartening to see what happens when an entrepreneurial environment takes hold. The result is a seemingly endless and renewable supply of small business starts.
Anyone with an old industrial mentality might think there is a finite amount of commerce to be done in any society — that after a while, there just wouldn’t be a need for any new businesses.
But in an entrepreneurial environment, that is not what happens.
Instead, small businesses beget other small businesses.
New businesses are created to take advantage of the money flowing in an upbeat economic environment. What’s more, there seems to be no end to the creativity of entrepreneurs to think up new business concepts. Businesses are “created out of nothing” so to speak.
A case in point is Ireland.
Just last month I wrote about how the number of small businesses in Ireland doubled in the last ten years.
Now a Sunday Times article profiles lifestyle businesses that enterprising individuals are creating in Ireland. A lifestyle business is one where the owner creates it so that he or she can live a desired lifestyle — perhaps only working a few days a week or working under certain favorable conditions.
Many of these lifestyle businesses are created “out of nothing.” That is, they are businesses of a kind that didn’t exist previously or were barely heard of, often arising out of the owner’s own interests or hobbies.
What makes these businesses possible is (1) the general entrepreneurial attitude and ingenuity to create new businesses, and (2) the economic good times, which lead to consumers having more disposable income. The more disposable income, the more these new and innovative businesses thrive. What didn’t seem like a need before becomes a need when people decide that the goods or services will enrich their lives and they have the disposable income to pay for them.
