Can Couch Potatoes Become Entrepreneurs?

Raymond Keating, Chief Economist of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council poses this question at the Capitalist Chatter blog:

Does too much “Desperate Housewives,”  ”24,” and “Oprah,” not to mention cruising the Internet, mean less entrepreneurship? Are we less entrepreneurial and more couch potato?

He cites some research by economists Andrew Burke, University of Cranfield in the United Kingdom and the Max Plank Institute of Economics in Germany, and Stuart Fraser, University of Warwick in the U.K., suggesting an inverse relationship between entrepreneurship and high media consumption on TV and on the Internet.

I’m not sure what this tidbit means for companies selling to budding entrepreneurs and small business owners.  

On the one hand, existing entrepreneurs who are relaxed, watching TV or surfing the Internet for entertainment, may have more time to take in your marketing messages than during the everyday press of their schedules.  So catching them in the midst of their R&R time can be a good move (assuming they don’t TIVO past your ads). 

On the other hand, if you have a product for wannabe entrepreneurs (such as “how to start a business” courses), maybe these wannabes will not act on their dreams and ever buy your product.  Then again, maybe they will buy your product, but just never get to the point of setting up a business.  We all know it is easy to take that one step, but hard to follow through …. 

Tags: entrepreneur; entrepreneurship.