The answer is simple…YES. How do I know? Because the first time I came to Germany, a couple of years ago, and tried to explain to some German friends what I wanted to do… have a company… no one understood what I was talking about.
People my age – in their mid-20s – do not have in their frame of reference what it means to be an entrepreneur, have a business, sell a service, sell a product. People in Germany are prepared to go to university and then find a company to work for… probably a large company. Large companies are 0.6% of the total number of companies in Germany, but they employ 44.9% of the country’s workforce. Micro-enterprises (less than 9 employees) are 82.9% of the country’s enterprises, but they only provide 18.3% of the work. If we compare this with one of the main economies of Latin America, it would look like this:
So it is not surprising that Germans do not know how to start a business. First, because why would they? the opportunity to work for a large company is already enough motivation to not think about anything else (better salaries, more growth opportunities, more stability). And second, because for your head to even come up with the idea of entrepreneurship, you have to be close to the owner and only 18.3% of those who work are in a company small enough to be in direct contact with the “dreamer”, who is the one who knows what to do and is excited about what entrepreneurship means.
If you think about it, where did your desire to be an entrepreneur come from? I don’t think it came from television or a magazine, like me, it was probably from seeing people close to you do it. And this is no longer common in Germany. Where the number of companies (regardless of size) has only continued to decline since this report (2018). So, the mentality of the new German generations… is not going to change.
What do I mean? That everyone in Germany is going to continue needing houses, clothes, food, work, digital products, technological products, but, but, while demand will remain and the economy (number one in Europe) will continue to grow, the supply will continue to be low… at least the supply of other Germans who want to offer their services and products. And there is where the opportunity lays, the opportunity I saw 4 years ago but that is still here for everyone… anyone who wants to come and do what Germans don’t…