Where Small Business Is Going

Intuit and the Institute for the Future recently released a new report on what the small business landscape will look like in 10 years. The study found three important trends that will define small businesses: the changing diversity of small business owners, the proliferation of personal businesses, and the emergence of entrepreneurial education.

Some of the findings include:

• Entrepreneurs will no longer be from the middle sector; but on "the edge."
  
  
• Future small business owners will not be from the middle of the age spectrum. There will be a surge of "elderpreneurs," or "second career entrepreneurs," in their 60s.
  
  
• Elderpreneurs will share the high growth sector with younger business owners that are born in the mid-1980s or later.
  
  
• Women-owned businesses will continue to flourish. The glass ceiling that has limited women's corporate career paths will send more women to the small business sector.
  
  
• "Mompreneurs" which describe working mothers, who are seeking an alternative to traditional employment and a way to combine work with parenthood, will also continue to expand.
  
  
• Both of these trends have been growing since the late '80s will continue through 2017 -- You go girls!
  
  
• Immigrant entrepreneurs will help drive a new wave of globalization. U.S. immigration policy and the outcome of the immigration debates will affect how this segment performs over the next decade.
  
  
• There will be a shift away from "traditional employment" and a surge in personal businesses.
  
  
• Personal businesses -- one person businesses with no employees -- have become an important part of the U.S. economy and will increase in number over the next decade.
  
  
• The growth will be driven by downsizing in larger companies and changes in technology.
  
  
• Many ex-corporate workers will become "free-agents," with less job security, but more flexibility.
  
  
• The third trend forecasts that "entrepreneurship" will be a widely adopted curriculum for educational and vocational institutions.
  
  
• The last decade has seen a rapid growth of university-level entrepreneurial training. The next decade will see the continuation of this trend, but will also see the growth of entrepreneurial training aimed at youth, mid-career professionals, artists and trades-people. The elements of entrepreneurship will become a mainstream subject helping to prepare our youth to be successful in the workforce.

Small Businesses Of The Future

Intuit just released a report on where they see small businesses going and what they will look like in 2017. Studying small business trends and staying on top of where entrepreneurs are going are important keys to successfully selling into the entrepreneurial market.

The top 5 findings from the report are:

• Entrepreneurs will no longer come predominantly from the middle of the age spectrum, but instead from the edges. People nearing retirement and their children just entering the job market will set the bar as the most entrepreneurial generation ever.
  
  
• American entrepreneurship will reflect a huge upswing in the number of women. The glass ceiling that has limited women's growth in traditional corporate career paths will send a rich talent pool to the small business sector.
  
  
• Immigrant entrepreneurs will drive a new wave of globalization. U.S. immigration policy and the outcome of the current immigration debates will affect how this segment performs over the next decade.
  
  
• Contract workers, accidental and social entrepreneurs will fuel a proliferation of personal businesses. Economic, social and technological change - and an increased interest in flexible work schedules - will produce a more independent workforce seeking a better work-life balance.
  
  
• Entrepreneurship will be a widely adopted curriculum at educational, trade and vocational institutions. As a result, artists, musicians and others not traditionally exposed to business education will learn not just their trade but small-business management skills as well