If you haven’t noticed, self-employment in the US is increasing. Entrepreneurial aspirations are rooted among the vast majority of the American public.
Small enterprises generate a staggering 60 - 80% of new jobs... This is according to data from the U.S. Census published by SBA. The Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership has published that in 2005, about 460,000 people created small business every single month.
Yahoo Media Relations released a study showing that 75% of the people interviewed wanted to start a company someday. About 50% wants to do so in the next five years.. The first half of 2006 saw more businesses being created than the first half of 2005. Talk about a fast growing trend . . it goes even further.
Generally, people tend to switch to self-employment when the economy takes a downswing and flow out when the economy recovers, however, there is a fundamental change occurring that impacts and is creating an upward trend of this phenonme. This trend is aka “baby boomers”.
There may be some grousing about the Boomers' drain on Social Security, yet another trend is emerging. According to a report in theMatureMarket.com, people over 40 accounted for 86.6% of start-up businesses in the second quarter of 2005. There were 14.3% of workers age 65 and older self-employed compared to 6.8% aged 25 to 54. (65+ in the United States: 2005: US Census Bureau)
Obviously we are living longer and are not inclined to “retire” at age 65. Of the rising numbers of baby boomers, some have been self employed throughout their career. Others start their business as a transition to full retirement, to earn supplementary income or just to keep busy.
While some of these entrepreneurs are those who were downsized out of their jobs or who saw retirement plans reduced to rubble, Boomer initiative and money, yet again, will be a boon to the economy in terms of job creation and dereased tax burden.
Many of these new “older” entrepreneurs are starting home-based businesses. Building on the foundation of a career of expertise and skills, they are simply transitioning from one environment to another.
A few facts:
• Self-employed business women spend 81% of their 31.9 hour work time at home contrasted with home based business men, who spend 49% of their 42.1 hour work week at home.
• Individual attitudes are changing from “work to live” to “live to work”.
• Many entrepreneurs are making the deliberate choice to stay small (micro-businesses). They like what they do and resist the transition of growth which necessarily requires a change from being a producer to becoming an administrator.
• Information technology has made it easier and cheaper to conduct business operations from home. Small businesses using the internet to conduct business rose from 22% to 73% in one year and was predicted to reach 82% in 2006.
o The proportion of total sales made online is greater for firms with fewer than 10 employees.
o Home based firms using the Internet are growing 46% faster and surviving longer than firms not using technology.
o Websites generated business leads for 81%.
Avoiding the costs of leased space plus the flexibility of being able to combine recreation and travel makes the home based business an attractive solution.
See Profiles in Retirement:The Entrepreneur Option The Wall Street Journal Online
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The Oregon Small Business Development Center Network’s funding partners
include sixteen community colleges, three regional universities,
the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Oregon Economic & Community Development Department.
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