We all know someone that´s started a business, maybe it was even us, but for the majority of readers that was in a developed country. There´s a well worn path and a multitude of role models and mentors for us to call upon. But in the developing countries entrepreneurship seems to lurk at the edges of society, too timid to be recognised. What´s with that?

The thing that has struck me when talking to entrepreneurs from Asia and Latin America, is they either don´t know where they are going to go to sell their product, or the simply have no plans to make their businesses any bigger. That is, once they satisfy the needs of their families, they no longer wish to make their business any bigger. In their eyes it would only be more work with no additional benefit.

The other problem is they simply haven´t got the mentors or role models to show them a path of growth. For example, I was talking to a few local producers recently and I asked them how did they intend to grow their business future. There response was to find more consumers, but when pushed on where and when they were going to do this, all they could respond with was the city. However they could not elicit any specific actions or examples they would take to achieve ¨new customers¨.

As such products currently rely heavily on word of mouth, however when asked if they wanted to make their start-ups their daily work, entrepreneurs often hesitated. It seems that many are fearful of putting their livelihoods at the hands of a business they control. Maybe this is a fear in their own abilities, or more likely it´s a reflection of the fragility of the economic systems they are based in.