Creative Commons

Ongoing economic recession in recent years, raising unemployment, decrease of disposable income, braindrain, lack of opportunities and weak human psychology limited Greeks’ dreams avoiding them to vision a better future for them. Some of these facts drove people of all ages or educational background to find alternative ways for their future and one option was the starting and running up of a start - up company. The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of potential entrepreneurs with regard to starting their own firm and analyze their motivation for starting their own business and examine barriers that they faced during the establishment and further operation. The aim of this study, through a qualitative research, is to capture and unlock knowledge and to obtain entrepreneurs’ perceptions regarding business engagement , with related sub - topics to be investigated, regarding the further operation and growth of their firms, the possibility of being acquired or other exit strategies after some period of firm growth . This in turn will shed further light to the knowledge around entrepreneurial behavior and motivation as well as perceptions and their effect on entrepreneurial activity and decision making. Hopefully the later will raise awareness and act as supporting factors with regard to young potential entrepreneurs’ related decisions. Finally, our findings also provide evidence as to start - ups further evolution and growth thus adding to the academic and practical discussion regarding entrepreneurial firms’ behavior, potential and growth extending knowledge beyond the point of the start - up process per se.