This paper is based on interviews with 58 micro-business owner-managers. It examines the factors influencing their decision to start up in business and classifies them as either ‘dissatisfiers’ or ‘motivators’. The research found that uncertainty in the decision-making process arises because the motivation to become self-employed is often based on beliefs rather than actual experience. This is important because uncertainty increases the perceived level of risk attached to self-employment as a career option. If self-employment is to be promoted, policy makers need to encourage more rational decision making and to provide programmes that actually involve the experience of running a small business.
AnnaA. L.ChandlerG. N.JansenE.MeroN. P. (1999), ‘Women business owners in traditional and non-traditional industries’, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol 15, pp 279–303.
2.
BakerP. (1995), ‘Small firms, industrial districts and power asymmetries’, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, Vol 1, No 1, pp 8–25.
3.
Barclays (1995), Starting Up in Business, Barclays Bank Small Business Services, October, London.
4.
Barclays (1996), Barclays Review – Women in Business, Barclays Bank, London.
5.
BeaverG. (2002), Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development, Financial Times/Prentice Hall, Harlow.
6.
BevanJ.ClarkC.HakimC. (1989), Barriers to Business Start-Up, Research Paper No 71, Department of Employment, London.
7.
BinksM.JenningsA. (1986), ‘Small firms as a source of economic rejuvenation’, in CurranJ.StanworthJ.WatkinsD., eds, The Survival of the Small Firm Volume 1 – The Economics of Survival and Entrepreneurship, Gower, London.
8.
BirleyS.WestheadP. (1994), ‘A taxonomy of business start-up reasons and their impact on firm growth and size’, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol 9, pp 7–31.
9.
BlanchflowerD. G.OswaldA.StutzerA. (2001), ‘Latent entrepreneurship across nations’, European Economic Review, Vol 45, pp 680–691.
10.
BögenholdD.StaberU. (1991), ‘The decline and rise of self employment’, Work, Employment and Society, Vol 5, No 2, pp 223–239.
11.
BoyleE. (1994), ‘The rise of the reluctant entrepreneurs’, International Small Business Journal, Vol 12, No 2, pp 63–69.
12.
BrooksbankD. (2000), ‘Self-employment and small firms’, in CarterS.Jones-EvansD., eds, Enterprise and Small Business – Principles, Practice and Policy, Financial Times/Prentice Hall, Harlow.
13.
BrysonA.WhiteM. (1996), From Unemployment to Self-Employment – The Consequences of Self-Employment for the Long-Term Unemployed, Policy Studies Institute, London.
14.
BrysonJ. R. (1996), ‘Small business service firms and the 1990s recession in the United Kingdom – implications for local economic development’, Local Economy, Vol 11, No 3, pp 221–236.
15.
BuchananD.BoddyD.McCalmanJ. (1988), ‘Getting in, getting on, getting out and getting back’, in BrymanA., ed, Doing Research in Organizations, Routledge, London.
16.
BurnsP. (2001), Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave, Basingstoke.
17.
ButtnerE. H.MooreD. P. (1997), ‘Women's organizational exodus to entrepreneurship: Self reported motivations and correlates with success’, Journal of Small Business Management, January, pp 34–46.
18.
BuzanT.BuzanB. (1995), The Mind Map Book, 2 ed, BBC Books, London.
19.
CreighS.RobertsC.GormanA.SawyerP. (1986), ‘Self-employment in Britain – results from the Labour Force Surveys 1981–1984’, Employment Gazette, June, pp 183–194.
20.
CrottyM. (1998), The Foundations of Social Research –Meaning and Perspective in the Research Process, Sage, London.
21.
DeakinsD. (1996), Entrepreneurship and Small Firms, McGraw-Hill, London.
22.
DeakinsD.FreelM. (2003), Entrepreneurship and Small Firms, 3ed, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead.
23.
DeMartinoR.BarbatoR. (2003), ‘Differences between women and men MBA entrepreneurs: Exploring family flexibility and wealth creation as career motivators’, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol 18, pp 815–832.
24.
DeyI. (1993), Qualitative Data Analysis – A User-Friendly Guide for Social Scientists, Routledge, London.
25.
DuboisP. (1996), ‘Economic sociology and institutional economics in France: A trend to convergence?’Work, Employment and Society, Vol 10, No 2, pp 361–376.
26.
GillhamB. (2000), Case Study Research Methods, Continuum, London.
27.
GlaserB. G.StraussA. L. (1967), The Discovery of Grounded Theory – Strategies for Qualitative Research, Aldine, New York.
28.
GoffeeR.ScaseR. (1995), Corporate Realities – The Dynamics of Large and Small Organisations, Routledge, London.
29.
GossD. (1991), Small Business and Society, Routledge, London.
30.
GrangerB.StanworthJ.StanworthC. (1995), ‘Self-employment career dynamics: The case of “unemployment push” in UK book publishing’, Work, Employment and Society, Vol 9, No 3, pp 499–516.
31.
HakimC. (1988), ‘Self-employment in Britain: Recent trends and current issues’, Work, Employment and Society, Vol 2, No 4, pp 421–450.
32.
HakimC. (1989), ‘New recruits to self-employment in the 1980s’, Employment Gazette, June, pp 286–297.
33.
HeilbrunnS. (2004), ‘Impact of gender on difficulties faced by entrepreneurs’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Vol 5, No 3, pp 159–165.
34.
HM Treasury (2002), Enterprise Britain: A Modern Approach to Meeting the Enterprise Challenge, Her Majesty's Treasury/Small Business Service, London.
35.
HM Treasury (2003), Bridging the Finance Gap: A Consultation on Improving Access to Growth Capital for Small Businesses, Her Majesty's Treasury/Small Business Service, London.
36.
ILO (1990), The Promotion of Self-Employment, Report VII, International Labour Conference, 77th Session, International Labour Office, Geneva.
37.
JeynesJ. (2005), ‘Women and the economy: A decade of entrepreneurship’, paper presented at the 28th Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship Conference, Blackpool.
38.
JurikN. (1998), ‘Getting away and getting by – the experiences of self-employed homeworkers’, Work and Occupations, Vol 25, No 1, pp 7–35.
39.
KellardK.LeggeK.AshworthK. (2002), Self-Employment as a Route Off Benefit, Research Report No 177, Department for Work and Pensions, Leeds.
40.
KellardK.MiddletonS. (1998), Helping Unemployed People into Self-Employment, Research Report No 6, Department for Education and Employment, London.
41.
KirbyD. A.Jones-EvansD. (1997), ‘Small technology-based professional consultancy services in the United Kingdom’, The Services Industries Journal, Vol 17, No 1, pp 155–172.
42.
KolvereidL. (1996), ‘Organizational employment versus self-employment: Reasons for career choice intentions’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol 20, No 3, pp 23–31.
43.
KolvereidL.IsaksenE. (2006), ‘New business start-up and subsequent entry into self-employment’, Journal of Business Venturing (in press).
44.
LinZ.PicotG.ComptonJ. (2001), ‘The entry and exit dynamics of self-employment in Canada’, Small Business Economics, Vol 15, pp 105–125.
45.
MasonC. (1989), ‘Explaining recent trends in new firm formation in the UK: Some evidence from South Hampshire’, Regional Studies, Vol 23, pp 331–346.
46.
MazzarolT.VoleryT.DossN.TheinV. (1999), ‘Factors influencing small business start-ups – a comparison with previous research’, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol 5, No 2, pp 48–63.
47.
MeagerN. (1993), ‘From unemployment to self-employment in the European Community’, in ChittendenF.RobertsonM.WatkinsD., eds, Small Firms Recession and Recovery, Paul Chapman, London.
48.
MeagerN.BatesP.CowleyM. (2003), Business Start-up Support for Young People Delivered by the Prince's Trust: A Comparative Study of Labour Market Outcomes, Research Report No 184, Department for Work and Pensions, Leeds.
49.
MurphyP. J.LiaoJ.WelschH. P. (2006), ‘A conceptual history of entrepreneurial thought’, Journal of Management History, Vol 12, No 1, pp 12–35.
50.
PattonM. Q. (1990), Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods, 2 ed, Sage, London.
51.
ReynoldsP. D. (1997), ‘Who starts new firms? Preliminary explorations of firms-in-gestation’, Small Business Economics, Vol 9, pp 449–462.
52.
RobertsonM.CollinsA.MedeiraN.SlaterJ. (2003), ‘Barriers to start-up and their effect on aspirant entrepreneurs’, Education and Training, Vol 45, No 6, pp 308–316.
53.
SchwenkC. R. (2002), ‘The cognitive perspective on strategic decision-making’, in SalamanG., ed, Decision Making for Business, Sage, London.
54.
SegalG.BorgiaD.SchoenfeldJ. (2005), ‘The motivation to become an entrepreneur’, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol 11, No 1, pp 42–57.
55.
SilvermanD. (1993), Interpreting Qualitative Data – Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction, Sage, London.
56.
Small Business Service (2004), A Government Action for Small Business, Small Business Service/DTI, London.
57.
StaberU.BögenholdD. (1993), ‘Self-employment: A study of seventeen OECD countries’, Industrial Relations Journal, Vol 24, No 2, pp 126–137.
58.
StanworthJ.StanworthC. (1997), ‘Reluctant entrepreneurs and their clients – the case of self-employed freelances in the British book publishing industry’, International Small Business Journal, Vol 16, No 1, pp 58–73.
59.
SteigerT. L.FormW. (1991), ‘The labour process in construction – control without bureaucratic and technological means?’Work and Occupations, Vol 18, No 3, pp 251–270.
60.
StoreyD. J. (1991), ‘The birth of new firms – does unemployment matter? A review of the evidence’, Small Business Economics, Vol 3, pp 167–178.
61.
StoreyD. J. (1994), Understanding the Small Business Sector, Routledge, London.
62.
StoreyD. J.StrangeA. (1992), Entrepreneurship in Cleveland 1979–1989: A Study of the Effects of the Enterprise Culture, Research Series No 3, Employment Department, Sheffield.
63.
StrausA.CorbinJ. (1997), Grounded Theory in Practice, Sage, London.
64.
WeirG. (2003), ‘Self-employment in the UK labour market’, Labour Market Trends, September, pp 441–451.
65.
YinR. K. (2003), Case Study Research – Design and Methods, 3 ed, Sage, London.
