This article was written by Bill Morland, SCORE Orange County Chairman
Want to know where small business and entrepreneurship is heading in the future?
Intuit Inc., best known as publishers of the popular small business software “QuickBooks” has sponsored a study conducted by the Institute for the Future that tells us that entrepreneurship will contribute greatly to the economic scene in the next 10 years but the makeup of the entrepreneur will be far more diverse than we see today. Specifically Intuit reports that “by 2017, the white, middle-aged men who traditionally launch small businesses will be outnumbered by Generation Years — those born after 1982 — women, immigrants and ‘un-retiring’ baby boomers opting for entrepreneurship as a second career.” The press release summarizing the study may be viewed by going to www.intuit.com and clicking on “about intuit” then “press room” then “press releases”.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Entrepreneurship 101” by Kelly Spors states that “Colleges used to ignore their students’ business aspirations. Now they are trying to nurture them”. Our local colleges and universities are leading the way in educating entrepreneurs of the future. Your local SCORE chapter participates in various entrepreneur inspired curriculums and projects at Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, Saddleback College and Orange Coast College.
Our resource partner, the US Small Business Administration, in their publication “The Small Business Advocate” reports that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics found that “small businesses generated 65% of net employment growth between September 1992 and March 2005” and that “the most net job creation takes place in the first two years of a firm’s existence and within firms that employ fewer than 20 workers”.
We at SCORE have seen our small business workshop attendance in our local areas increase by 53% in our last fiscal year. All of this data adds up to the fact small business is very important to our local economic growth and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. We at SCORE will be focusing on future growth patterns and how we can prepare ourselves at our upcoming yearly training meeting in May. Our goal is to stay relevant and be pro-active with the upcoming change and growth of small business in local areas. We are here to help you be pro-active as well and welcome you to signup for no-charge counseling by calling 714-550-7369 or visiting us on-line at www.score114.org and signing up for one of our more than 140 workshops that we will produce for you this year. We thank you for being a client or friend of SCORE and for your support of your local SCORE chapter.
