The future of entrepreneurship is also decided on a small scale.
(Photo: IMAGO/Michael Gstettenbauer)
The reflexes work quite well in the case of major insolvencies, as the example of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof shows. It’s about 18,000 jobs. Politicians and unions want to help the employees, and: 680 million euros have already flowed from the economic stabilization fund for the Corona failures. So you think quickly about the next level of rescue.
In secret, however, many entrepreneurs are currently asking themselves whether they can continue at all. Bakers, hairdressers, restaurant operators are mellow; after the pandemic, due to the bureaucracy, the shortage of skilled workers and workers, enormously increased prices for energy and other raw materials and their customers’ concerns about inflation.
It would be worth taking a closer look: According to the Federal Statistical Office, microentrepreneurs and the self-employed provide twelve million jobs. If 40 percent of restaurateurs and 20 percent of retailers are seriously considering closing down, that should alarm politicians and society just as much as an impending bankruptcy of a gallery.
Not only are jobs at risk, which is bad enough. No, the local supply in inner cities and residential areas, which is becoming increasingly important in times of climate change, is also at risk. The environment thanks you if you can walk to the bakery or cycle to the nearest restaurant instead of taking the car.
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And last but not least: Entrepreneurship starts on a small scale. Where there are no small start-ups, no large companies will grow. According to the Federal Statistical Office, almost three percent fewer people were already looking for a business idea during the pandemic, but more people were looking for a secure job. It is bad for our economy when fewer and fewer people start businesses or follow entrepreneurs.
Why many entrepreneurs are losing their joy
Now that restaurants are only opening three days a week and bakeries are closing earlier, many entrepreneurs are not only losing the joy of being self-employed. Rather, they lose money and pension provision if they pay more for every bun or haircut because, as a small market participant, they cannot pass on the increased costs.
The call for new state aid is cheap. However, a lot would have been achieved if the customers, i.e. all of us, were blessed with a better understanding of the price developments on the other side of the counter. If the well-earning middle class mocks the high price of bread rolls and then, after the baker goes bankrupt, has to drive their SUV to the discount store again in the future, then something is wrong: for the environment and local supply.
A little more solidarity with micro-enterprises, at least for the higher earners, could start with paying the prices that rolls, pizzas or haircuts cost at the moment.
More: Why more and more bakers, hairdressers or cafés are giving up