Globalization, Small Biz-Style

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Still, Mishev feels that his work in the family firm helped him get his current position in an entrepreneurial infotech firm. "I am 25 years old, full of ambition, wanting to increase my knowledge and accomplish all my goals," he wrote.

Going Beyond the Family Business

Sharma says Mishev's attitude is not unusual. "These young entrepreneurs are trying to make their marks independent of what their fathers and grandfathers have done. These young people and their companies are growing fast and becoming relevant on the global scale," he says. While previous generations were often constricted by government red tape and low customer expectations, younger entrepreneurs who take their cue from the international business models they see online are more open to new ideas and are setting higher standards for their companies.

"Three companies I'm working with were very small, and they stayed small because the older generations in these businesses were not in touch with the new realities of the world," Sharma says. "But I'm working with these very young entrepreneurs to create a new model that tries to do more with less and be responsive to customers without waiting for them to put pressure on your company."

Two decades ago, starting a business in India was almost impossible unless a family had connections with the government, he says, and commercial outputs were tightly controlled by a highly corrupt bureaucracy. But in the last decade and a half, the outsourcing boom hit the country and took the bureaucracy by surprise. "They didn't know how to control what was going on over the Internet and now they're losing their grip" on commercial enterprise, he says.

"Unfortunately, in many of these smaller countries prosperity was meant only for those few in the ruling class," he says. But with business consulting and solid training available online, new leadership and new standards are taking their right place. And gearing up new leadership to compete in a global economy is crucial to entrepreneurial firms' long-term success, Sharma says. "You may have been able to get away with sloppy products and customer service in some countries in the past, but that's not going to work on the international level," he notes.

One of his clients, the 25-year-old heir to a family business in India, approached Sharma at a seminar. "We've been working with him for four years and have taken the firm from $20 million to $140 million in annual revenues by increasing quality and responsiveness to the customer. With this enormous growth they have not added any more people. They are simply becoming very competitive on a global scale and are now starting to export to the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, and other countries. They're learning that their products have to be globally acceptable, not just acceptable in India. But the first hurdle was for this young man to convince his father that they needed to change," Sharma recalls.

Khan, by contrast, is the first entrepreneur in his family. "No one in my family is an entrepreneur. Most of them have services-based occupations," he wrote. He decided to become an entrepreneur because he felt his abilities were well suited to running a business. "When I see all the economical and social pressures regarding career, I just wish to have smooth and peaceful surroundings without any tensions related to earnings," he wrote.

Peace through Prosperity

His desires are not unusual, Sharma says, and they may be beneficial not only to budding entrepreneurs but also to global society. "My view is that economic well-being is the foundation of the creation of wealth and world peace. Security happens when the people on the bottom rung of the ladder can prosper and grow. If you think about it, you hardly hear about people getting into extremism where there is economic prosperity. When you let the free spirit prosper and grow among people who have the desire to do something different, that's when change happens. We hear about extremism in the Middle East, but when people have a chance to participate in prosperity, you don't hear about extremism. This is a fundamental equation that can help countries to prosper," he says.

As for Khan, he says he has no fear of failure or of a crackdown on his business by government bureaucrats or religious extremists. "I am working for my better career and family. We're creating new jobs for people, and we're helpful to many needy as well. I don't have any fear, I just trust truly on my ambitions."

Karen E. Klein is a business journalist who covers small-business issues for several national publications. She writes her Smart Answers column twice a week.