Due to the severe competitiveness in the marketplace, venture creation in big towns, such as Sfax-Tunisia, has become a serious challenge. Then, considering entrepreneurship as a source of wealth creation, economic growth, social progress, and technological development, the current paper seeks to identify the motivating and demotivating factors that are respectively triggering and impeding new venture creators‟ decision to start their businesses. Drawing on the theoretical and empirical literature, we developed a questionnaire that we addressed to 186 graduate students to identify the observed motivations and constraints to business start-ups. The application of factor analysis has revealed that business creators‟ decision to launch their ventures rests upon six motivational factors: support structures, networks, personal satisfaction, needs for independence and autonomy, and power. On the other hand, business creators are faced with five demotivating factors such as lack of capital, unavailability of network, risk aversion, and administrative constraints. The study also suggests some recommendations to alleviate these obstacles.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, business creators, Motivators, Obstacles