Young entrepreneurs are among the hardest hit during the Covid-19 crisis. Surveys suggest that nearly 90% of young entrepreneurs report a negative impact on their business, including reduced customer demand, supply chain disruptions, and distribution disruptions. About one quarter of those surveyed reported that they have stopped their business completely.
In the short-term, policy makers need to ensure that measures for small businesses are available to, and appropriate for, young entrepreneurs, who are increasingly working as freelancers or combine self-employment with education and/or employment. Looking further into the future, policy makers should anticipate the implementation of measures to address rapidly growing youth unemployment and greater barriers to labour market entry for young people. Youth entrepreneurship programmes can be part of the policy response to help young people gain labour market experience and build professional networks to help them pursue a sustainable business activity or transition into employment.
The Youth Entrepreneurship Support Alliance is launching a questionnaire for assessing the needs and support that entrepreneurs need in time of crisis.
This survey is aimed to gather opinions and recommendations form representatives of public authorities in the field of entrepreneurship, civil society organizations and young entrepreneurs from the Western Balkan countries.
Results of this survey will contribute to the process of development policy recommendations aimed at public authorities for supporting young entrepreneurs in times of Covid-19.
The questionnaire can be found on the following link.
