Purpose: The paper presents results of research on determinants of selection of the moment of starting running own business.

Methodology: The method of questionnaire research (partial) was used in the paper. 60 students of full-time studies in Poland, who were selected at random, took part in the research. The research constitute continuation of the researches on entrepreneurship conducted by the SES students of full time studies at the University in Szczecin since 2003.
Data obtained from presented research were compared in the paper with international material, which was collected in the previous editions (obtained from the Lithuanian, Latvian, Russian, Ukrainian and Hungarian students).

Conclusions: Results of the conducted research let positively verify the hypothesis that actual tendency of individuals to set up own business appears after few years of professional career – what explains quite substantial disproportion between percentage of people declaring willingness for setting up own business and actual percentage of self-employed in the working population. Preferences concerning this scope have infl uence on shaping the level of self-employment in a given country.

Practical implications: The material contained in the paper can be useful for appropriate public services, which deal with support of development of self-entrepreneurship of citizens, because of the fact of paying attention to analyzed relationships.

Originality: The results of presented research constitute an attempt of filling the gaps, which occur in the literature of subject concerning entrepreneurship. There are not papers concentrating on the issues of factors determining moment of choice of setting up one’s own business.