News
Forced Entrepreneurship-(A Sustainable Employment)
09 May 2020
FORCED ENTREPRENEURSHIP
SUSTAINABLE EMPLOYMENT - DISGUISED EMPLOYMENT
The pandemic outburst is posing profound challenges to the way we live and work. A crisis of this scale and magnitude has left us fearful that personal, financial, and societal disruption is going to be a way of life for times to come. One thing is clear that nothing is going to be the same. The world has changed and this is going to be the new normal - a different way of operating and living. The reality is that peoples’ behavior is changing fundamentally, and so much else is changing, and the question is, “will it go back?” the answer in most of the cases is “no.”
Covid-19 is a terrible shock to the global economy as well as the thousands of individuals and families it has affected. The economy is in flux, Layoffs are commonplace and no one's hiring, no one's extending credit, no one cares and we all need the money and occupation to keep going. For some establishments, near-term endurance is the priority while others are examining through the haze of ambiguity, thinking about how to position themselves. The question is, ‘What will normal look like?’ No one can say how long the crisis will last. It is impossible to know what will happen. But it is possible to consider the lessons of the past, both distant and recent, and on that basis, to think constructively about the future.
Forced unemployment increases self-employment.
A common finding in the entrepreneurship literature is that business creation increases in recessions.
In combating this situation it is very likely that we may witness the emergence of a new niche of small-business owners. We may call them accidental entrepreneurs, unintended entrepreneurs, or FORCED ENTREPRENEURS. Forced entrepreneurs are the individuals who had no plans to own their own business but the circumstances moved them to strike out on their own realizing that the entrepreneurship was the ONLY way they can beat the current situation.
Forced entrepreneurship often starts with project work, temp jobs, consulting gigs, or other opportunities for making money. Often one opportunity will lead to another, and a patchwork business plan begins to shape. The Internet is now enabling people and ideas to connect in ways never before. The business models that eventually spring to life often have little resemblance to the original idea for a business, it is the fluid nature of the start-up world that keep them engaged.
To succeed as a forced entrepreneur, bootstrapping is king. A worldwide pandemic has forced us to put heavy reliance on technologies for a larger scale, particularly in the verticals of 1. E-learning Technologies. 2. Remote Working. 3. Cashless Payments although technologies like e-learning, teleconferencing, VPNs and digital payments were all available before the outbreak now they have taken the evolutionary leap in becoming an operational norm for now and forever. These technological verticals will be the most promising playing field for the new breed of forced entrepreneurs.
CA Vinod Kr Sharma
Professor
Faculty of Commerce & Management
RAMA UNIVERSITY