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If you plan to be a thriving small business owner in ten years, then you’ll
be interested to know that your fellow entrepreneurs will reflect a much
different profile then you might be seeing today. Last month, we discussed the
first part of a small business ten-year forecast that was released by
Intuit. The remainder of the report has now been released, and reiterates that
seasoned baby boomers, teens right out of high school, women in mid-career,
“mompreneurs,” and new immigrants will be part of the most diverse pool of
entrepreneurs ever.
These are among the key findings in the Intuit Future of Small Business
Report™, a study that looks forward 10 years and examines the prospects,
influences and profiles of small business. In this series, we’ll take a look at
some of the study’s additional key findings that will change the look of small
businesses, and will help shape the future of the nation’s economy.
Diversity is the key. The first part of the Intuit study
revealed that the newest entrepreneurs will bring greater diversity than their
predecessors, in terms of age, origin and gender. By 2017, white, middle-aged
men who traditionally launch small businesses will be outnumbered by Generation
Yers (those born after 1982), women, immigrants and baby boomers who
are not retiring and are opting for entrepreneurship as a second career.
The report identified three major trends:
- the changing face of small business
- the rise of personal business
- the emergence of entrepreneurial education
In the newly released segments of the report, these trends lead to five major
findings, which we will discuss in the next part of this series. |
