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Four
Strong opportunities for
entrepreneurship
Perhaps one of the best opportunities
for revamping the narrative around
the skilled trades is to highlight the
opportunities that trades careers offer
for future entrepreneurship. The idea
of owning and operating your own
successful business is, at face value,
something that most people in this
country respect. And while we often
think of someone like Steve Jobs or
Mark Zuckerberg as the ideal of an
entrepreneur—someone who has
a great idea (usually a tech-related
innovation) and builds it in their garage
or dorm room—the truth is that entre-
preneurship can take many forms.
One of those forms of entrepreneur-
ship—taking your skills, knowledge,
experience, and contacts and using
them to launch your own business—is
uniquely well suited to the skilled
trades. Studies have shown that there
are relatively low barriers to entry for
skilled trades workers who, after taking
the time to gain experience and certifi-
cations in their career of choice, decide
to strike out on their own and start their
own businesses.
“What we find is an industry filled with
entrepreneurs, who are often happy,