It’s become somewhat cliche that modern workers want their work to have purpose and meaning, and that they want the values they abide by in their personal life to be reflected in the work they do.  While this has become a bit passe for regular employees, for entrepreneurs it has rather more importance to it.  Indeed, Jeff Bezos famously remarked that when he speaks to entrepreneurs, he avoids those who are chasing a fortune and instead focuses his attention on those who want to change something they believe in.

It’s perhaps noteworthy, therefore, that new research from Trinity Business School finds that solo-entrepreneurs value things such as purpose and autonomy more than financial growth.

Purpose and autonomy

The researchers quizzed numerous solo entrepreneurs to understand their motivation for starting their business and what their ultimate ambitions were.  The analysis revealed that just one in three planned to grow the business to the state that new hires would be required.

What’s more, this trend was especially noticeable as the education level of the entrepreneur rose, which the researchers believe indicates that for such people, money is seldom the over-riding factor in the creation of their business.

The researchers argue that a very specific form of autonomy helps to explain this trend.  They suggest that many of the more highly educated entrepreneurs pursue their ventures in highly knowledge-intensive sectors.  They believe that working in these sectors is a clear indication of their desire to have self-expression in their work, and the high value they place on this desire is a major factor in their decision to pursue self-employment.

Given the fragile state of the economy post-COVID, entrepreneurship is likely to be a more common presence, so this kind of understanding of the motivations of solo-entrepreneurs could be crucial if society is to support them effectively.