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Yesterday we were discussing the struggles that entrepreneurs are facing, with many having to take on second jobs to keep themselves solvent.

Then today we stumbled upon an interesting debate on the blogosphere that moves this discussion on a bit. Social entrepreneur and power coach Yu-kai Chou recently blogged with his suggestion for keeping entrepreneurs afloat: government subsidies.

Yu-kai suggests that the US government should float entrepreneurs about $20,000 simply to keep them in business. He thinks it would save the economy. Here’s his rationalization:

The government can give entrepreneurs a VERY low amount of survival money, like $20,000 a year, as a salary to do entrepreneurial work. This is useful because there are lots and lots of people who would be entrepreneurs but they couldn’t pursue their dreams due to realistic survival issues. This plan allows them to pursue the innovation work they want without the fear of dying on the streets. Many entrepreneurs are some of the smartest and most creative people in the workforce, and they demand very little to survive. They also need to spend all $20,000 of that money because they don’t have the capacity to save.

There’s an interesting debate happening on the comments section of this blog post about whether this suggestion amounts to socialism and kills competition. Whatever your political feelings, its certainly an interesting suggestion, and would welcomed by many franchisees and entrepreneurs.

As for when you get your business or franchise off the ground,  Paul Segreto at the franchiseinsights blog has some worthwhile suggestions for making your business stand-out once you open your doors.

Getting the keys to your unit does not assure customers or profits. In many ways, the hard work only really starts once you open your franchise. As Paul writes:

Many franchisees find it necessary to stand behind the counter and serve the customer when they would better serve the business by getting out from behind the counter and mingling with the customers, visiting other businesses, participating in community events, etc.

The major challenge is that most franchisees refuse to take this approach, feeling they’ve made a large investment and the business should come to them, or put the responsibility on the franchisor, or are just lazy and would rather wait for tomorrow. Well, as Garth Brooks sings, “if tomorrow never comes…” Instead, they need to make it happen today and forget tomorrow, as if there is no tomorrow!

It’s great advice and something we should all keep in mind.