 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 show 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, my 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 in entrepreneurship Many countries have realized that the only way to decrease the poverty level 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 job of a woman was to only care for her home. However, this century has experienced a remarkable change of perception. The importance of assisting women with starting their own small business is now seen as a way to improve their family financial situation. Women these 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 female report equal Ohio entrepreneurship rates than men, one of which is Qatar. 3. Collaboration Never before have companies in the centuries passed 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, to create brand awareness and visibility, and also to 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 corporation to hire small corporations to get specific contracts. In many cases, these government agencies set aside a 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 who 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 the growing trend for conscious consumers and environmentalism, the today's 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 desires to build a socially conscious enterprise that returns something to 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. Also is Ecosia, the search engine that claims to use over 80% of its profit to plant trees where they are needed most. 5. While signs of advertising are detected in Asian 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. The media is now the leading platform for advertising. If your business is still focusing on traditional forms of marketing, your campaign is officially outdated. These 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 were persuaded. Social advertising has a way of convincing customers yet making them feel like the decision was theirs. Besides, while printed commercial ads have their limitations in space and time, online strategies break through that barrier. Thus, every successful 21st century entrepreneur is one who is leveraged on the online. 6. Technology use Even though industrial manufacturing has been in slow decline in developed nations, technological entrepreneurship has moved in to fill the void. According to the 2017 Mainer Adventure Report, tech companies, e-commerce, software and technology in the UAE made up 29% of new businesses. In the 1950s, these were a distinct minority. These days, even if a company is not a tech startup, it is highly likely to be utilising developments such as social media, apps and websites. Technology also means it's possible to work from anywhere at high speed and enormous scale. You don't necessarily have to live 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 Entrepreneurship 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, with 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 as a core for every student of the institute and even individuals without the 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 online courses on YouTube. Where before has there been so much information available for free or next to nothing? Today, every founder can read all there is to know about running a startup online. Incubators and accelerators like Y Combinator have institutionalized experiential training in best practice, product or market fits, pivots, 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 are 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 will 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 then? What technologies will be prevalent and what will be obsolete? The 21st century entrepreneurship has shifted the focus from just competencies and hard skills 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 area of expertise alone is an invitation to failure. In the 21st century, the barriers to entrepreneurship have been removed. Further replacements with innovations that are speeding up each entrepreneurial step summed by a factor of 10 are being made.