2012 conventions 2012 election 2013 session 2013 special election arts arts and culture author ballot measures basketball bomb books boy scouts budget bullying business charlie hales children clackamas climate change coal college courts crime culture culture club democrats drugs economy education environment family film fluoride food gay rights guns handguns health health care health insurance high school history housing immigration international internet kitzhaber law legislature lgbt literary arts living marijuana marriage media medicine mental health military minor parties mohamed mohamud movies music native americans news newspaper obama olympics oregon our town parenting pers photography police politcs politics port portland portland business journal president prevention public safety religion republicans rnc romney rural salem sam adams sandy hook schools science shooting sports suicide supreme court taxes technology television terrorism theater third parties transportation union university of oregon washington wildfire women

to quote mark twain...there are three ways to lie : lies , damned lies , and statistics ! simply , small business does not have a high failure rate. all the statistics used to describe failure ( SBA , Dept. of Commerce , etc ) are actually describing business filings. thus , if i hang out my consulting shingle as a sole proprietor , gain market share and incorporate my sole proprietorship is counted as a failure. if later i add partners and change to an LLC my corporation is noted , statistically , as another failure. in this example after three years of increasingly successful small business ownership  i have a 67% failure rate. too , if the stated 4 % success rate quoted was correct and there are currently 29 million small businesses in the US that represents 1.2b startups. the math does not , in any way , support the conclusion. in fact , small business has a better than 80% success rate after 5 years.

there have been 3 million startups during the recession. the large majority will survive. during the great recessionary era i have counselled more than 100 northwest small businesses , losing two.

the second point you must consider is differentiating between small business owners and entrepreneurs. entrepreneurs have a much higher failure rate including folks like rupert murdoch , donald trump , and paul allen.the average small business owner starts with less than  $15,000. ( savings , IRA's , credit cards , family loans , home equity loans ) and has a very high success rate. their challenge is not failure or success but rather to create a family wage job with benefits and retirement funds.

go to my website : www.ridgefieldinstitute.com to learn more about the real challenges and opportunities associated with self-employment. thank you , thomas.

thomasa g. jones , ph.d.

small business management instructor

clackamas small business development center

posted 2 years, 11 months ago
view in context