Where Entrepreneurs Fear an Uncertain Income
Having an uncertain income is one of the things that people find frightening about going into business for themselves. Unlike a salary earned from working for someone else, future business profits are hard to predict. And people like to be able to forecast what they will earn in coming years.
While the the unpredictability of business income is something that makes people everywhere apprehensive about business ownership, how big this fear is varies a great deal across countries. A random survey of the population of 36 countries undertaken in 2009 indicated that only 19 percent of the population in South Korea but 59 percent in Lithuania saw an uncertain income as one of the two scariest aspects of starting a company (see below).
That’s nearly three times as many Lithuanians as Koreans consider the unpredictability of business earnings to be one of their greatest fears about entrepreneurship indicates that people from some countries are better able to deal with this fundamental difference between working for oneself and working for someone else.
As you might expect, Americans were not as likely to be apprehensive about the uncertainty of business income as people from other nations. The U.S. was tied with the Netherlands and Iceland for the seventh lowest percentage of the population identifying uncertain income as one of their two greatest fears about business formation across the 36 nations where the survey took place.
Share of the population reporting that fear of an uncertain income is a top apprehension about going into business for oneself:
About the Author
Scott Shane is A. Malachi Mixon III, Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of nine books, including Fool's Gold: The Truth Behind Angel Investing in America ; Illusions of Entrepreneurship: and The Costly Myths that Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By. 
The Franchise King
Founder of Small Business Trends
Author of Excel for Marketing Managers
Thanks, Scott.
Interesting stats..and I’m pretty surprised to find out that US citizens aren’t that fearful about what they’re going to make as business owners.
I know that stats don’t lie, but almost all of the people that I work with in my franchise advisory business Feel That Fear.
The Franchise King®
Very surprising results there. Although I suppose South Koreans have things other than money to fret about, so it’s no surprise they’re #1…
I don’t think people/technology that has brought these stats need not really stand as a testimony for the stats it depicts rather could be an approximate? not sure again!Anyways, as we know, for any person to start a business,if you struggle with decision making, because you fear making the wrong choice or of being wrong, then running a business will be more problematic than it needs to be.
I agree, it’s a valid concern when deciding to make the jump and most people have a hard time with it. Just the other day I was talking to a financial adviser and I had a hard time answering the preliminary questions about projected income next year. But I don’t fear it. I am the 60%
Interesting information, worth noting. Thanks
Thanks for sharing these interesting stats. Definitely something to take in to serious consideration when starting a business is the reality that you may not make money. I didn’t expect to make a profit in the first year and that was right. I think what keeps us entrepreneurs going though is seeing the upward trend in revenue from year to year.
What’s really challenging in this economy is dealing with the opportunity cost of what you could earn by simply working for a corporation vs scrapping to make a living doing your own thing. Not the easiest time, but for the brave the feeling of accomplishment is immense. Something akin to the lyric in New York New York that goes, ‘If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere…’