A majority of the 81 entrepreneurs surveyed were males (72%) and operated in the capital city of Maiduguri (52%). The rest of the respondents operated in the major cities of the state. With an average start-up age of 34.7 years, the typical entrepreneur appeared to be experienced in one activity or the other before the start-up. To follow this up, the last job engaged in by the respondents was investigated. As revealed in Table 1, only 19% of the respondents reported being either unemployed (10%) or were students (9%) before the start-up. The rest were managers (31%), professionals (20%), supervisors (20%), and operatives (11%). Forty-three of the respondents (53%) reported having no business relationship at all with their former employers after starting their businesses. However, 22% of the respondents considered their former employers as their direct competitors. Table 1 also revealed that the sample was concentrated in the service sector as opposed to the manufacturing and construction sectors.
Fifteen of the respondents (18%) come from sectors other than service, construction and manufacturing. They mainly come from restaurant, retail and wholesale sectors. The average firm in the study is ten (10) years old and employs up to eleven (11) workers.
Out of the 81 respondents, 39 reported to have received support from the institutionalized enterprise support programs and initiatives. Of the 39 responding firms that received support, 18 received financial support, 10 received non-financial support and 11 received both financial and non-financial support. Forty-two of the total responding firms did not receive any support whatsoever from any of the institutional supporting agencies running the support programs and initiatives. Eighteen of the 42 firms without support were ignorant of either the existence of the supporting agencies or the kind of support that they provide to the small business community. Twenty-three knew about the agencies and their programs but did not bother to solicit assistance because they considered the areas of support available to them as "useless" (13 respondents) or thought that only people with connections got support (10 respondents). The remaining 10 of the 42 firms without any support applied for support but did not receive any. Four firms applied without success on more than three occasions and they did not plan to apply again.
Exploring entrepreneurship in a declining economy Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, Apr 2000 by Yusuf, Attahir, Schindehutte, Minet
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