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Entrepreneurs in Estonia think it is easier to start a business than entrepreneurs in Latvia and Lithuania and there are more people in Estonia who actually start a business, it appears from a survey by SEB Bank.
It's easier to start a business in Estonia than in Latvia, Lithuania - survey
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The percentage of people interested in starting a business meanwhile is the highest in Lithuania.
The ratio of respondents considering it easy to start a business in their country was 45 percent in Estonia, 29 percent in Latvia and 30 percent in Lithuania, SEB said.
"How simple it is to start a business determines the number of micro businesses and, simultaneously, the viability of broad-based economy. In Estonia a big leap has taken place in new business startups, because as far as the creation of favorable business environment goes we are a small step ahead of our southern neighbors," Mart Maasik, chief of business innovation at SEB, said in a press release.
He said that while Lithuania had the highest percentage of people interested in business, the number of those who had started a business was the biggest in Estonia. "During a year nearly 5,000 more companies are established in Estonia than in Lithuania, which has a bigger population size," said Maasik.
In Estonia 70 percent of companies are created using one's own savings, compared with 76 percent in Lithuania and 77 percent in Latvia. The next most popular financing sources are family and friends. There's a big difference in the use of state support, as in Estonia 11 percent of those who had started a business had received national or European Union support for that. In Latvia the respective indicator was 6 percent and in Lithuania 0 percent.
The new entrepreneurs already in business see finding a market for their product or service and finding skilled workers as the main obstacles to business. While finding market is the biggest problem in Estonia, in Latvia and Lithuania delayed payment of invoices is the biggest headache for business owners.
"Those who haven't started a business yet see finding startup capital as the main obstacle and are afraid of failing. The picture one has before starting a business and life as an entrepreneur are quite different things," Maasik said.
The comparative survey taken by SEB in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania covered more than 4,200 respondents.