Study: The Romanians, the most pessimistic people in the world when it comes to launching a business

Only 4.29% of the population aged between 18 and 64 in Romania was involved in launching a busness or managed and owned a company for less than three years and a half, according to a study where Universitatea Babes-Bolyai in Cluj Napoca took part.
« In 2010 the rate of entrepreneurship activity in the early stage in Romania was of 4,29% which means that 4,29% of the Romanians between 18-64 years old were involved in starting a business or managed and owned a business for less than 3.5 years. This result at first sight could be acceptable, as the rate is even higher than in such countries as Germany and Denmark, but less than in countries such as Spain and Portugal. If we look at the countries with similar development level as Romania, we surpassed only Russia in 2010 « Lehel-Zoltan Gyorfy, university lecturer in the Faculty for Economic Science and Business management in the University Babes Bolyai Cluj.
He mentioned that the rate of entrepreurship activity in early stage in Romania dropped from 4.02% in 2007 to 3.98% in 2008 and in 2009 advanced to 5.02%.
Gyorfy showed that the pessimism of Romanian entrepreneurs is higher than in the countries in the study, and 85% of the entrepreneurs in early stage say that it is more difficult to start a business locally than last year.
« In 2010 and 2009 we were leaders in this sector ( the pessimism of entrepreneurs). I have to add that on the one hand these data must be analysed by the governmental area as well, and on the other hand, we have to see that there is the need for a change of mentality at individual level, in the sense they have to wait for the conditions and the support which will never be perfect. In other countries there was also a crisis and there were mistakes as well and I think that the situation is not impossible in our case either » the lecturer went on.
On the other hand, Gabriel Cretu, manager Canale Distributie si Managementul Sucursalelor in OTP Bank considers that the Romanian entrepreneurs could avoid many difficult situations if they had basic financial knowledge.
« The conclusions of the study coincide with the role we have assumed at the bank, that of focusing on consultancy as we were discussing with the clients and we felt the need to launch some products much more simplified from the point of view of interaction degree between bank and SMEs. We realised that the problems we had with our clients during the crisis had a strong connection with the level of financial understanding of the business they managed » Cretu said.
He thinks that many entrepreneurs started from an idea, but they had financial troubles due to some steps – such as acquisition of expensive cars – which they could have avoided with basic financial knowledge.
At the same time, the OTP official mentioned that in Romania there are many success business models which started from the level of SME and developed into a company.
« Bill Gates ( the Microsoft founder) did business starting at grassroot level, from the SME level. In our case, those who got very high started with one refinery, which is clear a discrepancy of models. We have some success stories, who have started from a small investment which they managed rationally, used innovation, develop and got to become a model in their community. We have already said that, in the same type of business there are managers who are bankrupt and others who are very well-off. I could say that what is necessary now is the rational manager and obviously everybody looks for it, there is no news » Cretu said.