Turkey needs entrepreneurs
The President of Entrepreneurial Businessmen Foundation Mehmet Koç works to encourage young people to entrepreneurship. Koç said, “Entrepreneurs will carry the economy to a higher league” Stating that the family and education system recommends getting a job, Koç said, “The state has serious support for initiatives. We, too, must pave the way for businessmen and young people.” According to Mehmet Koç, President of the Entrepreneurial Businessmen Foundation (GİV), Turkey needs entrepreneurs to reach its 2023 goals. Reminding that parents do not recommend their children to start their own businesses, but to work in an insured job, Koç said, “Actually, this is very wrong. Every entrepreneur means a new employment door. We are always intimidated by failed examples, but entrepreneurship is always better than professionalism. Our aim is to help young people start their own business. teach me how to own it,” he said. We talked to Koç about the roadmap of entrepreneurship.What is the place of entrepreneurship in the economy?Turkey needs to produce. Macroeconomic troubles are all about entrepreneurship. The population of Germany is almost the same as Türkiye. The number of employees in Germany is 40 million, ours is 20 million. This means that we have a population of 20 million who can still work. It is the largest energy educated human resource in the world. We have it. That’s why we need more new ideas and more businessmen.GOVERNMENT PROMOTESDo we have a cultural predisposition to entrepreneurship as a nation?Although we are known as enterprising, we are not entrepreneurs. We are trying to pave the way for entrepreneurship starting from the family family structure. At the moment, the state understands this very well. He says 3-5 percent growth of existing businesses is not enough for Turkey to grow. We need people who will invest in new potential areas and develop business ideas.FAMILY DOES NOT ENCOURAGEDo you find the state’s support for entrepreneurship sufficient?The state gives serious support to entrepreneurship. Because he works like an entrepreneurial company. Standards have settled in Turkey, now we need to move to the next level. The way to do this is through production and savings. The society saw the welfare it had not seen in the last 50-60 years and stopped saving. The state cannot find entrepreneurs. Last year, the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology announced that it will give grant loans to 550 young people. It was given to only 250 people.Why weren’t there enough applications?Young people do not sit down and produce projects. Because we have told these people, “Graduate, work somewhere, get a job with insurance” since their childhood. Neither his family nor the education system told this young person to “think innovatively, start a business”. This won’t happen all of a sudden.What do you recommend to young people?I advise them to clear their minds of looking for a job. Currently, the salary of an engineer who graduated from a good place is 2 thousand 500 liras. Subsequent increases are also evident. So he’s going to live as a credit card prisoner for 20 years. They will not be connected to banks intravenously. However, if they grit their teeth for 3-5 years and take the risk of failure and family opposition, they feel more comfortable. We graduate more than 700 thousand a year. 3-4 thousand of this is called entrepreneurship. However, if 50 thousand jobs were created, we would not have unemployment problems.What are the foundation’s efforts in this direction?We have entrepreneurial meetings once a month. Businessmen are invited. We do not always call the successful ones, but also the failed ones. He comes and talks about his experiences and struggles in his own life. This gives hope to the youth.“Let’s be the hand that gives, not the taker”Do you tell your children to “become entrepreneurs”?I have 3 children aged 6, 13, 17. I practically teach them the essentials of business life. Our Honorable President also taught the society the importance of being a hand that gives, not a hand that takes. He taught the businessman to give scholarships and to do charity work. I think a businessman should also consider teaching young people how to be a businessman as a no. However, they are not fully convinced yet. I’m sure this will break. We want a businessman to hold a young man’s hand and give him money and support his business idea.So you are promoting angel investing?For us, patronage and angel investing are the same thing. For this purpose, we established a company called Bahariye Melek Investment Network and Maya Labs within the body of GİV. The job of this company is to write down the imaginary projects that come here. They listen to the ideas of young people and give training on project writing. Thus, they help the projects grow to the bone. Because young people do not know how to express their projects, how to reach financial institutions and public institutions that provide incentives. The systematic of the work is taught. We provide trainings together with KOSGEB.So, besides the state, you also provide investment support to young people?In addition to the Ministry of Industry, many public institutions such as TÜBİTAK, KOSGEB, TIDEP support such projects.