 Entrepreneurship is fast emerging as a transformational mega trend of the 21st century, given its capacity to reshape economies and industries throughout the world. The 21st century entrepreneurs have now become key drivers of the economy. They are the lifeblood of any expanding economy, driving the society by generating jobs, introducing new products and services, and promoting higher upstream and downstream value chain activities. In this video, I will share with you 9 things that have changed about entrepreneurship in the 21st century. 1. Financial incentives The governments of various countries of the world are beginning to encourage individuals to venture into entrepreneurship as well as equipping individuals with facilities and funds needed to be a part of the entrepreneurial revolution. While the venture capital industry continues to globalize, governments and markets are exploring a range of financing strategies to provide capital to entrepreneurs including microfinancing, crowdfunding and credit guarantee schemes. Governments and even non-governmental agencies of this dispensation offer financial incentives to their citizens to start new businesses to save the environment or end illegal activities. For example, grants are being offered in countries located near the Amazon Forest like Brazil and Colombia to complete the destruction of the Amazon by stopping login and cattle grazing on the Amazon Forest. Many countries located near the Amazon Forest are finding alternative means for their citizens to make a living. Also, governments of many African countries give loans and grants to masses to alleviate the high rate of poverty plaguing the continent. 2. Women and entrepreneurship Many countries have realized that the only way to decrease poverty in their countries is by educating and financially empowering their women. One famous African proverb says, If you educate a man, you educate an individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate a nation. Back in the days, entrepreneurship was only meant for the men, especially in the African continent, because it was believed that the woman's job is to only care for her home. However, this century has experienced a remarkable change of perception. The importance of assistant women for starting their own small business is now seen as a way to improve their family's financial situation. Women this days make up a significant proportion of those in charge of startups. In emerging markets, the G20 estimates that females, either through full or partial ownership, represent 31-38% of registered, small to medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Research Association. There are now even countries where females report equal or higher entrepreneurship rates than men, one of which is Qatar. 3. Collaboration Companies before have companies in the centuries past experienced synergies as it is occurring in this 21st century. Outsourcing has become almost like a basic necessity for building a formidable business. It is fundamental. The successful entrepreneur of the 21st century is one who has the spirit of making connections and creating collaborations. Big companies are starting to outsource a lot of their work to small businesses because they are beginning to see the numerous benefits of outsourcing. Companies collaborate to cut costs, create brand awareness and visibility, and break through new market grounds. Partnerships are also formed mostly between big and small organizations in a bid to get government deals, as many government agencies are now requiring large corporations to hire smaller corporations to get specific contracts. In many cases, these government agencies set aside certain percentage of bidding contracts for small and minority-owned businesses. Generally, entrepreneurs in the 21st century have turned from competitive to collaborative. 4. Social Ethics An even more recent shift has been the rise of ethical entrepreneurs. Previously, most individuals have ventured into business except for a few who were visionary did so only for profit's sake. However, touched by the social desire to stem corporate greed and in line with a growing trend for conscious consumers and environmentalism, today, entrepreneurs are no longer purely profit-driven. The aim of entrepreneurship has moved from profit to value. People set up businesses these days to provide solutions to problems, improve on existing solutions, or the desire is to build a socially conscious enterprise that returns something to the society. Companies such as Tom's, the shoe store, which runs a one-for-one policy, buy one pair of shoes and another is donated to a person in need, is a prime example of social entrepreneurship. Though also is Ecosia, the search engine that claims to use over 80% of its profits to plant trees where they are needed most. 5. Advertising Strategy While signs of advertising are detected in ancient eras, its biggest boom came around the mid-19th century in capitalist economies through the use of newspapers and magazines. Radio and television commercials during the 20th century increased the saturation of ads, covering every bit of blank space possible with marketing campaigns. The 21st century is no exception to the evolution of commerce. Social media is now the leading platform for advertising. If your business is still focusing on traditional forms of marketing, your campaign is officially outdated. Thus days, the overload of exposure has resulted in consumers seeing right through marketing strategies and people generally do not like the idea of being sold to. They want to be able to feel like they decided to buy, not that they are persuaded. Online advertising has a way of convincing customers, yet making them feel like the decision was theirs. Besides, while the print and commercial ads have their limitation in space and time, online strategies break through that barrier. Thus, every successful 21st century entrepreneur is one who has leveraged online. 6. Technology Use Even though industrial manufacturing has been in slow decline in developed nations, global entrepreneurship moved in to fill the void according to the 2017 Minaventure Report. Tech companies, e-commerce, software and technology in the UAE made up to 29% of new businesses. In the 1950s, these were a distinct minority. These days, even if a company is not a tech startup, it's highly likely to be utilizing developments such as social media apps and websites. Technology also means it's possible to work from anywhere at high speed and a normal skill. You don't necessarily have to leave where the money is anymore. And you don't have to spend your day knocking on doors. The internet has been vital to enabling this. In the quest to go global, businesses are expanding their workforce to include and take advantage of startups in smaller, developing nations as well as knowledge from around the world. And technology has made remote and virtual involvement possible. 7. Younger Entrepreneurs According to the 2013 Global Entrepreneur Monitor, nearly 50% of the world's entrepreneurs are between the ages of 25 and 44. With 25 to 34-year-olds showing the highest rates of entrepreneurial activity, high youth unemployment rates in many countries of the world, paired with changing work and lifestyle preferences, are creating a new class of young entrepreneurs. Youth entrepreneurship is high on the political agenda as a means to boost competitiveness and employment. At many of ETFs' 30 partner countries signing up to the Small Business Act for Europe, the opportunity to build the next generation of young entrepreneurs has never been better. 8. Education One of the reasons why entrepreneurs can start younger is the rise of entrepreneurial culture. A whole lot of universities now have entrepreneurship, a core for every student of the institute. And even individuals without opportunity to attend universities are not left out in this 21st century entrepreneurial revolution. They still have access to knowledge through self-learning, such as via free online courses or YouTube videos. Never before have there been so much information available for free or next to nothing. Today, every founder can read all that there is to know about running a startup online. Incubators and accelerators like Y Combinator have institutionalized experiential training in best practices, product market fit, PVOTs, agile development, etc., providing experience and hands-on mentorship and offering a growing network of founding CEOs. 9. The Demand for Skills Entrepreneurship is no longer the domain of people with bright ideas and a dream, but those with brilliant ideas and focused training to boot. Think of how different the world looked when you were much younger. Now, try and imagine what it would look like when your child finishes education 10 years from today and enters the world of work. Can you accurately predict what jobs will be trending by then? What technologies will be prevalent and what will be obsolete? The 21st century entrepreneurship has shifted the focus from just competencies and hard skill to digital and soft skills. Anyone who wishes to grow in this present era must be open to learning new relevant skills from time to time. Depending on your era of expertise alone is an invitation to failure. In the 21st century, the barriers to entrepreneurship are being removed. Further, replacements with innovations are speeding up each entrepreneurial step. Some, by a factor of 10, are being made.