If we continue to do this, there will be fewer and fewer people starting businesses!

This article deeply analyzes the challenges and difficulties of the current entrepreneurial environment and explores the multiple factors that have led to a decrease in the number of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial projects. From the perspectives of reduced opportunities, capital withdrawal, and increased entrepreneurial risks, the article reveals to readers the real difficulties on the road to entrepreneurship. By reading this article, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of the current entrepreneurial situation, which I hope will help you evaluate entrepreneurial opportunities and formulate strategies.

Have you noticed that there are fewer and fewer entrepreneurs around you in recent years?

There are fewer and fewer entrepreneurial projects, and various business and financial apps rarely push corporate financing news.

I have been browsing BOSSS Direct Recruitment for a long time, but there are always the same few companies, and there are very few new positions and new companies.

Have you ever thought about why there are fewer and fewer entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial projects?

1. Opportunities are indeed fewer

First of all, we have to admit that in the current Internet entrepreneurial environment, there are fewer entrepreneurial opportunities and many projects are just rehashing old ideas.

1998-2018 were the hottest 20 years for entrepreneurship. Whether it was PC Internet or mobile Internet, there were too many opportunities for entrepreneurship, from physical stores, e-commerce, SAAS, content, O2O, etc.

One is that there are a lot of people. Both the birth rate in various places and the consumer population in all classes are increasing.

The second is that a large number of user demands are not met, such as people buying computers in bulk, replacing new mobile phones, buying smart wearables, and pursuing more convenient express delivery, same-city, and group purchasing services.

The third is that the policies are relaxed. From Internet e-commerce to P2P to self-media, etc., the policies are relatively relaxed, so various tools and platforms emerge in an endless stream.

The various tools, software, and platforms that we currently use, including Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, and Video Account, all emerged during this stage.

But now we see that users already have houses, cars, and other things, so there are very few opportunities.

2. Capital is no longer invested

After the epidemic, many companies have revealed their true colors. Many investors are not only in the companies

The returns on investment are gone, and the investments in other markets are even more empty.

Many industries are not a situation of flourishing, but rather a situation of one flourishing (oligopoly), resulting in the fact that many projects' investments simply do not make money.

One of the core reasons is that the capital market approach is no longer feasible.

Many companies that could have expanded their scale by spending money and then gone public are now blocked.

In addition, apart from the so-called AI which is a bit of a gimmick, other projects that are said to be innovative can essentially find alternatives in the market.

Just like social e-commerce was mentioned before as micro-commerce, but now there are seven or eight types of social e-commerce, and it is a bit far-fetched to talk about innovation.

Moreover, the outstanding performance of listed companies in social e-commerce has made many investors no longer interested in this area.

The same is true in many other fields, so if you say you want to start a business now, no one will rush to buy it, even if you offer a very low price.

In the past, as long as you said you came from BAT, others would support you even if they didn’t look at your project, they would just invest in you.

Nowadays, even if a project of yours has achieved a GMV of 10 million in a month, it may not necessarily be able to raise funds.

3. The risk of starting a business is too high

In addition, as an entrepreneur in recent years, I can clearly feel that the risks of entrepreneurship are really too high.

As a result, people who want to start a business are reluctant to try anything other than conservative self-media, let alone make huge investments.

Not only is investor confidence declining, but entrepreneurs' confidence is also declining.

The vitality of the entire entrepreneurial market is not actually driven by those top entrepreneurs.

What determines the situation is that hundreds or thousands of small projects with financing of hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars are formed.

1. Platform risks

Here are four real-life examples from my own experience:

a. Taking knowledge payment as an example, the platform will often restrict our payment account abnormally or even freeze it directly.

b. If there is a customer complaint or a business or category problem on the platform, the platform will be subject to restrictions on user searches at the very least, or directly taken offline at the most serious.

c. If we want to launch a content mini-program on WeChat, we need to go through many steps, such as category selection, local regulatory review, and supplementing various information.

Moreover, a picture of a woman wearing sexy clothes such as a bikini can be posted on other external platforms, but if users complain that you are vulgar and you do not delete it, it will be removed from the platform.

d. We previously had a collection account with normal transactions, but due to user complaints, more than 200,000 yuan of our funds were frozen.

After making phone calls for half a year, I finally got my appeal back.

Just imagine, for ordinary entrepreneurs, the company would have gone bankrupt long ago.

2. Customer Risk

For those who do e-commerce, all platforms are doing price comparison and only refunding, so many businesses are difficult to do.

First, if the user only requests a refund, it will be difficult for you to refuse, or you will be deducted points.

Secondly, as soon as a user makes a complaint, the merchant’s platform and account will be restricted.

Many online businesses are far less convenient than offline businesses.

At least offline, businesses have the opportunity to trial and error.

A user paid 39 yuan to buy a document on our platform, and asked for a refund half a year later.

In order to protect the creators, we chose to refuse. The user then started to complain to various departments, from the platform to market supervision, fire protection, street, Internet information, etc.

The cost of starting a business is too high.

3. Policy risks

In addition, there are many uncertainties in current market policy risks.

First, for example, in social e-commerce, many new models are still subject to traditional policy supervision, which makes it difficult for many projects to innovate or there are risks at any time when they are implemented.

Secondly, many industries such as education, e-commerce, live streaming, and finance have undergone different policy adjustments, which have resulted in many entrepreneurs being forced to terminate their hard-earned businesses due to various qualifications and conditions.

Third, there are still many places where cross-provincial investigations are carried out to investigate old records, such as directly freezing a company’s funds.

Not long ago, several staff members from a certain province came and took two of our core technical personnel to a hotel to assist in the investigation. One of them stayed for three days.

The reason is that a corporate project they participated in four or five years ago is now being investigated, and they participated in the product development.

This not only delayed our development, but also created psychological trauma for our employees and ourselves.

4. Employee risks

Today’s entrepreneurs are, to some extent, a vulnerable group. They cannot let their employees work overtime, and they cannot talk to their employees about hard work.

As a founder, you may be photographed or write short essays by employees and post them online at any time. You may also be sued or arbitrated by employees at any time.

For many startups, being able to pay salaries is often good enough.

But many people think that if they can bring down their boss and the company, they will be victorious.

Employees believe that the company can go bankrupt but they cannot work overtime.

This will only make more and more people unwilling or afraid to start a business.

Originally, we were trying to solve the employment problem for the society, and we had to make huge investments in the early stages. But if we were not careful, we would be burdened with all kinds of criticisms.

So instead of investing tens, hundreds or even millions of dollars every month, why not spend it on yourself?

When there are fewer entrepreneurs, there will be less money circulating in society, fewer jobs, and investment and demand in other fields will also decrease.

4. Don’t start a business blindly

Regarding starting a business, I have two more suggestions, which I hope will be inspiring to some friends:

1. Don’t quit your job without a plan

If you are not extremely talented or wealthy, don't quit your job to start a business.

The probability of failure for novice players in their first business venture is very high, so you must take stock of what resources you have before starting a business.

2. Be small and beautiful

There are few big entrepreneurial opportunities now, but many small opportunities.

And although it may seem small, you have the opportunity to earn millions or even tens of millions a year.

Therefore, you can form a small team of 5-10 people and gather some reliable people.

Finally, I hope that all entrepreneurs can find fields and projects that suit them and make a fortune quietly.

We also hope that there will be more and more favorable policies to give entrepreneurs confidence, so as to revitalize the entire entrepreneurial and employment market.

Author: Shili Village; Source: WeChat public account: "Shili Village (ID: shilipxl)"