I read this morning that 50% of all new companies go out of business or liquidate after one year, and 90% go out of business or liquidate within the first 5 years. This article went on to state that 95% of companies that build up a team of more than 8 staff members within the first year will survive the first 5 years of starting the business. This data suggests that bigger is better, and in case you had any doubts about that, the author went on to hammer the point home.
To be honest I have no idea if the presented figures were correct. The SBA and Score figures
that I compared them with were actually more positive--but it is entirely possible the writer was using internationally based statistics. However, if there is one thing I learned during an agonizing semester or two of Probabilities and Statistics, it is that you can pretty much make statistics say whatever you want them to say; it all really depends on the data you choose to include and how you choose to correlate and present it.
At any rate, this author was making a case for his consulting services...so the Doomsday scenario that he presented was, of course, in his own best interest. One of the foundations of marketing both online and offline require that you first define a problem...and then offer a solution, which is exactly what he did.
Personally, I disagree with the notion that you have to start out with a bang and grow quickly. Some may look at that notion as bullish and courageous, and that is well and good if it is a luxury you can afford. I look at it as a risk that the majority of the would-be entrepreneurs out there really cannot afford to take. Now, I do not pretend to be an expert on this, so let me tell you why I believe as I do, at least in the case of many Americans.
Elvis said, "I'm caught in a trap, I can't back out, because I love you too much baby...."
What does that have to do with anything? Well nothing at all if you continue singing the song, but just stop with that part in your mind, and look around you at the Baby Boomers you know intimately or at least well. Quick, how many of them are caring for children or grandchildren, while also caring for ailing parents or a parent that simply retired on social security and cannot make ends meet on their own?
Just in my extended circle of friends and family alone, I know of more than a dozen of these three, and sometimes four, generation family units all living under one roof, or on one main income, with
the Baby Boomer as the lynchpin that is desperately holding it all together by the sweat of their brow and skin of their teeth. No matter what their income level, they are all caught in a trap, and they cannot back out because they love their extended family too much. They may dream of tropical vacations and a less demanding life, but these people have all been unexpectedly hit with the need to be the responsible one taking care of everyone else. They are the very definition of the phrase, “...lives of quiet desperation.*”
Traditionally the caregivers in this trap built of love and necessity are usually thought of as middle-aged women, and the majority are, but in a country where the majority of marriages also end in divorce many are also male. Most of these people need a second income just to make a go of it, and they do not have the time or the luxury of risking it all or starting big. They may be long for wealth when they finally lay their weary heads down for the night, but they would be more than happy to settle for a lifeline and some breathing room. For them, a low-risk, minimal overhead, shoestring operation that can be started in the home, worked on for a few stolen hours each week, and brings in a few extra dollars each month is a heaven sent opportunity.
I personally suspect that it is this very trend, along with rapidly rising prices, that is fueling much of the recent surge in women and minority owned, and online business. After reading the Guru's marketing letter, I hopped over to the U.S. Small Business Administration website and found a few statistics of my own.**
Women in Business
* Women represent more than 1/3 of all people involved in entrepreneurial activity. (Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2005 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship)
* Between 1997 and 2002, women-owned firms grew by 19.8 percent while all U.S. firms grew by seven percent (Source: SBA, Office of Advocacy)
* Women-owned firms accounted for 6.5 percent of total employment in U.S. firms in 2002 and 4.2 percent of total receipts. (Source: SBA, Office of Advocacy)
* The number of women-owned firms continues to grow at twice the rate of all U.S. firms (23 percent vs. 9 percent). There are an estimated 10 million women-owned, privately-held U.S.
businesses.
* The greatest challenge for women-owned firms is access to capital, credit and equity.
* Women start businesses on both lifestyle and financial reasons. Many run businesses from home to keep overhead low. (Source: SBA, Office of Advocacy and Business Times, April 2005)
Minority-Owned Businesses
* Black-owned businesses are the fastest growing segment, up 45 percent between 1997-2002. Revenues generated by the nation's 1.2 million black-owned businesses rose 25 percent between
1997 and 2002 to $88.8 billion in 2002. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)
* The number of U.S. businesses with Hispanic owners grew at three times the national average from 1997 to 2002 to 1.6 million businesses in 2002, a 31 percent increase from five years
earlier. (Source: MSNBC)
Seniors in Business
* Entrepreneurship among seniors is growing. In 2002, the rate of self-employment for the workforce was 10.2 percent (13.8 million workers), but the rate for workers aged 50 was 16.4 percent
(5.6 million workers).
* Although those age 50 made up 25 percent of the workforce, they comprised 40 of the self-employed.
* Solo business formation in the future will be driven by people who take early retirement or whose jobs just disappear. (Source: AARP/Rand Corp. "Self-employment and the 50 Population")
*Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Chapter 1, Economy.
**Sources: U.S. Small Business Administration, June 2006.
Finding An Entrepreneurial Lifeline In A Life Of Quiet Desperation - To learn more about this author, visit Teresa Bohannon's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 |
Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors |
|
Dianne Crampton
Dianne Crampton is an Executive Leadership Coach and Team Building Consultant and creator of the TIGERS team development model. For the past twenty years she has helped leaders and teams achieve goals with high levels of collaboration and teamwork.
Crampton is a published author. Her contribution to Working Together: Diversity As Opportunity was endorsed by Stephen Covey. She has written for trade magazines. Merrill Lynch nominated her business for Inc. Magazine’s regional small business and entrepreneurial awards. Her work with Native Americans was recognized at a United Nations sponsored conference in 1994.
The TIGERS model passed two rigorous validation studies in 1992 and 1994. The TIGERS Survey is able to measure and track team development over time.
Dianne is also the creator and distributor of the TIGERS Team Wheel game. This game helps groups identify behaviors that build collaborative groups and behaviors that cause conflict, morale problems, production failures, and misunderstandings.
For more information, or to subscribe to TigerTracks, a free monthly leadership and team newsletter go to http://www.corevalues.com - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
|
Vwodek Wojczynski
Business Coach and Consultant Vwodek Wojczynski (pronounced Voy-chin-ski) brings fun, awareness, accountability and fresh perspectives based on his diverse experiences in life and business.
Born in Poland and educated in Greece and Canada, he is trilingual with 8 years experience in business development with clients in Canada, USA, Switzerland and Poland.
His approach is systematic and process-driven. He fuses the know-how of proven business methods with his commitment that entrepreneurs experience satisfaction and joy based on their values, motivations and strengths. He believes that businesses succeed based on their ability to generate value by providing what’s needed and wanted.
Ultimately, he trains executives and true business owners - people who work less, produce more, own businesses that run automatically after a while and make a difference globally.
His current research focus is the development of intelligent business systems and the application of emerging artificial intelligence technologies in business.
He is also an avid traveler, spoken word performer and visual artist. He resides in Toronto, Canada. - Visit Vwodek Wojczynski's Website |
|
Dave Kurlan
Dave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development.
Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit.
He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine.
He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball.
He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|
George Ludwig
George Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance.
Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson.
His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more.
George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
|
The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.
|
|
|
Teresa Bohannon
(Visit Teresa's Website)
Teresa Thomas Bohannon is a web designer,
hosting & domain provider & internet
marketing consultant. Teresa founded Spun
Silk Web Design in December of 1995 as one
of the first free standing female owned
web design firms in the country. Teresa
is also the founder the LadyWeb Family of
Informational & Educational Websites,
created to help women and men who dreamed
of starting their own businesses find
their way inexpensively through the
available maze of website options, domain
and hosting providers, and software
solutions. Teresa's latest ventures are
the MyLadyWeb Self-Installing AdSense &
Affiliate Websites, a simplified turnkey
option for beginning AdSense
entrepreneurs, & LadyWeb's Things To Sell
Resale Shop & MyLadyWebsGiftGiveaway
a free marketing cooperative.
Teresa is a published author of short
stories and holds an MA in history. In
addition, she is the Human Resource
Administrator for a non-profit agency.
Teresa's personal cause is revitalizing
literacy by reading "with" children.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|