19 Enterprise Management 3.1.2 MOTIVATIONS BEHIND STARTING THE ENTERPRISE There were several reasons observed for the MEs to be motivated for starting their own enterprises. These included the continuation of family businesses by the young generation, a shift in livelihoods from agriculture to entrepreneurship which lead to migration from rural areas to urban areas, availability of natural resources in the surroundings, formal training and courses received in some fields, seasonal or permanent change in business to make more profit. The natives in all five locations carried forward their own family business such as wood keychain making, bamboo weaving, broomstick manufacturing, clay statue making and so on. There were many benefits of doing so. One, the social capital involved gave easy access to suppliers and customers. Two, they saved the initial investment cost they would otherwise spend on renting space and buying necessary equipment and other assets. Kyaw (keychain maker, Bago) a 22 year old ME took over his family business 4 years back. He got wood from a fixed supplier at the end of every month. He also had a lot of customers from his father’s time. At home, he had two lathe machines along with a commercial electricity meter. He leveraged on the social capital he received and expressed the desire to experiment with his keychains to attract more customers. Kyaw’s keychain business As Yangon is the former capital and the biggest city in Myanmar, it attracted migrant population from suburbs and villages. In other cities, majority of the MEs were natives. Most of the migrant MEs in Yangon, were from a rural agricultural background and migrated to Yangon in search of better job opportunities. Some of them did agriculture in one season and came to Yangon for work during the other season to earn enough as they had to return the loan amount they had borrowed from the banks, money lenders and pawn shops. Aung (Dumpling seller, Yangon) used to do agriculture in one of the villages near Yangon but did not make much profit so came to Yangon and sold Satay (jackfruit) for two years which did not do well. He then sold guavas for a few days and dropped it. Then one day while travelling in the bus he saw the advertisement of Myamudo dumpling company and personally went to inquire about it and started selling dumplings right after. Phyu (buys/sells hair, Yangon) helped her family in agriculture during the rainy season and bought-sold hair in winters. She had been doing so for 3 year and said that many people in her village did similar businesses so she also started doing it. Aung, dumpling business