Last year, the corona virus pandemic was the biggest challenge for further growth and business development of 82 percent of successful entrepreneurial companies from Serbia, the fifth annual EY Entrepreneurial Barometer survey showed, it was announced today.
The research also showed that 40 percent of entrepreneurs do not intend to postpone the planned investments, despite the pandemic, while 59 percent stated that the conditions for entrepreneurial business are unfavorable.
EY Entrepreneurial Barometer is an annual survey, conducted within the project EY Entrepreneur of the Year, under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy of Serbia. The 110 most successful entrepreneurs in Serbia participated, among which 66 percent of entrepreneurial companies belong to family businesses.
According to the survey, 81 percent of respondents used the measure of assistance from the Government of Serbia in the form of payment of the minimum wage per employee, while more than half of those surveyed, 55 percent, said they introduced new products or adapted old ones to cope with the crisis.
The survey also found that 71 percent of entrepreneurial companies focused on environmental awareness and business sustainability, while 73 percent identified sales problems as the biggest risk factor.
As stated, the trends in the relationship between ownership and engagement in entrepreneurship by gender, compared to the previous research, have shifted in favor of women, who in 2020 were 27 percent among the respondents, compared to 23 percent in 2019.
There are still the most university-educated entrepreneurs – 75 percent compared to 73 percent in 2019.
Production is still the most represented among entrepreneurs in Serbia (53 percent), and the number of IT companies is increasing (11 percent).
The research showed that only four percent of entrepreneurs in Serbia were able to continue their business outside the business premises without hindrance.
The goal of the EY Entrepreneurial Barometer is to directly research the expectations and needs of domestic entrepreneurs, based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the domestic entrepreneurial environment.
The EY Entrepreneur of the Year program has existed globally for more than 30 years, and in Serbia since 2012, when more than 200 domestic companies employing almost 20,000 people went through the research, Beta reports.
