YES WE CAN!

Who is the most important person involved in staging a global economic comeback?

• The current President of the United States?
• Whoever the next President is?
• The Fed Chairman?
• The U.S. Treasury Secretary?

No.

The most important person for the future of the United States and global economy is YOU—the entrepreneur.

You have heard the statistics before, but they are worth repeating as it shows you the tremendous power and burden YOU have for making an economic recovery possible.

U.S. Small Business Administration reports that, small businesses are responsible for 58% of all jobs and half of the total GDP. 64% of all new jobs were created solely by small businesses over the past 19 years.

Small businesses:
• Represent 99.7% of all employer firms
• Employ more than 50% the private-sector employees
• Pay 44% of the total U.S. private payroll
• Have generated more than 64% of all new jobs during the past 15 years
• And create more than 50% the private gross domestic product
*statistics from U.S. Small Business Administration

Carl Schramm, president of the Kauffman Foundation says this, “Entrepreneurs, people who now create more than half the new jobs in America,are defining the new economy, not just here, but around the world. We could call the current era the age of entrepreneurial capitalism.”

This new era is changing the face of what we think of as the entrepreneur as well.

Entrepreneurs over the next decade will be far more diverse than their predecessors in age, origin and gender.

Traditionally entrepreneurs came predominantly out of the middle of the age spectrum, but now are now coming more extensively from the edges.

These are people nearing retirement… and their children just entering the job market.

A Kauffman report, “The Coming Entrepreneurship Boom,” said that the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity for the last 10 years has been among the 55 to 64 age group. The research states that the United States might be on the cusp of an entrepreneurship boom—not in spite of the aging population, but because of it.”

There are a number of factors triggering this. Certainly the current economy and the loss of retirement nest eggs are part of it. But also life expectancy has risen and people are staying healthier and living far longer.

In addition, long-term jobs with pensions are becoming a thing of the past. There has also been an increasing trend to force older workers out through layoffs, buy outs, outsourcing overseas, and early retirement so younger, less costly employees could be hired.

On the opposite side of the spectrum entrepreneurship professor Jeff Cornwall of Belmont University calls the current rise of Generation Y (ages 5 to 25) “the most entrepreneurial generation ever.”

The new face of entrepreneurship will also be more feminine. The glass ceiling that has limited women’s corporate career paths will send more women to the small business sector than ever before.

And the face will be multicultural. Immigrant entrepreneurs will help drive a new wave of globalization.

These are times of great opportunity if you pay attention to the way the waves are moving, grab your surfboard, jump in the water and start paddling like crazy.

No matter the campaign slogan or campaign promise of any Presidential candidate, none of them have the power to change your economic future—only YOU do.