The creation of companies in Spain continues unstoppable. And all this in the midst of a time marked by strong economic, social and political uncertainty, neither inflation nor the rise in interest rates have been able to stop it. in 2022 more than 3,200 million euros of investment in the country were exceeded, data that triples the figures for 2019 and 2020. However, 9 out of 10 Spanish professionals consider that entrepreneurship is not encouraged enough, as stated in the new IEBS Digital School Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Radiography Report 2023.
Everything indicates that this year the entrepreneurial ecosystem will see an important transformation and development of the sector and not only due to the context of volatility, but also due to the major legislative changes that will mark the industry hand in hand with the new Startup Law. The regulation aims to promote the entrepreneurial fabric by establishing a series of incentives, in addition to legally defining the startup concept.
However, and despite the government efforts to adapt to the rest of the legislation in Europe, Spanish professionals consider that there is still a lot of room for improvement, and this is confirmed by this IEBS study. Specifically, 91.6% of the Spanish professionals surveyed consider that entrepreneurship is not encouraged enough and that more should be done. And they don’t just see a visibility problem, but also in the number of aids granted to the sector. 79.2% believe that there is not enough aid from public bodies.
In addition, regarding the changes that they will ask politicians to promote entrepreneurship, 58.3% have indicated facilitating taxation adapted to the digital reality of startups, 50.1% instilling entrepreneurial culture, 45.8% streamlining administrative obstacles and 42.6% facilitate foreign investment in startups or national companies. Finally, 16.7% would also bet on favoring exports.
These data reflect the long journey that remains for public institutions in terms of promoting entrepreneurial culture and in terms of aid, such as the Digital Kit, which has only been requested by 15.8% of entrepreneurs.
The sectors with the most future to undertake
On the other hand, regarding the sectors that they consider to have the best future, the professionals surveyed have highlighted the Fintech and Blockchain, e-commerce and retail and Big Data and Artificial Intelligencewith 62.5%, 54.2% and 45.8% respectively, followed by technological and software development and Industry 4.0, with 41.7% and 39.5%.
According to the 2022 Entrepreneurship Map, the entrepreneur profile has remained stable in recent years: Men (80%) aged 33, with higher education (70% with a master’s degree and 16% with a doctorate), with professional experience previous. Specifically, more than half already worked in a company before starting a business (7% in a startup) and 24% had already started a business before. Less than 1% were unemployed.
In this sense, 75.9% of those surveyed by IEBS believe that anyone can start a business, although with a minimum of industry experience and business management knowledge. Regarding the latter, 95.8% believe that it is essential to have training in business management to start a business.
“Although, without a doubt, there are people who are born with innate talents, all of them must be reinforced and worked through training. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to develop key skills such as leadership, decision-making or emotional intelligence to be successful”explains Pascual Parada, Academic and Innovation Director of IEBS.
