Despite the recent rise of the traditional economic indicators, too many people are left out of these gains. The long-term decline in entrepreneurship has dragged down productivity, wages and living standards for all Americans.

Put simply, fewer entrepreneurs mean a lower quality of life for Americans, according to Washington, DC-based Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), which pointed to the 2018 State of Entrepreneurship report by Kansas City, MO-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

The study revealed three “mega trends” in entrepreneurship:

• Demographics: U.S. population is increasingly diverse, educated and older, yet the entrepreneurial population is not changing as fast.

• Geography: Entrepreneurship is increasingly an urban phenomenon, although it’s also growing outside of the largest cities - spreading to mid-sized metro areas.

• Technology and Job Growth: Technological advances have meant that revenue and jobs no longer scale in an almost linear fashion. Fewer jobs are created as companies reach massive scale, yet opportunities are more widely available as technology lowers barriers to entry.

The study, kauffman.org/SOE2018 and mbda.gov/sites/mbda.gov/files/kauffman_2018_soe_leave_behind_web.pdf, also found that entrepreneurs are optimistic about their future, holding a positive outlook on the current environment for businesses and the future of their own businesses.

• While some have a negative outlook on the national economy (55% of startups give it a negative rating, 39% of older businesses), business owners feel more confident in the economic climate for businesses like theirs. Majorities (65% of startups, 69% of older businesses) rate the current climate as excellent or good.

• This favorable business climate leads many to rate their own performance in the past year positively (67% of startups, 77% of older businesses), and entrepreneurs are even more optimistic about how they will perform this year (88% of startups, 81% of older businesses).

• Not only do they perceive themselves as performing well, most report they have become more profitable in the past year (56% of startups, 40% of older businesses) and are satisfied with their profits (73% of startups, 72% of older businesses).

• Their continued optimism leads them to believe that they’re likely to increase their profits (89% likely among startups, 77% among older businesses), offer a new product or service (78% of startups, 52% of older businesses) and make an investment of more than $10,000 into their business (59% of startups, 43% of older businesses).

 

In the Winter 2017/2018 Issue of CAREERS & the disABLED magazine, a photo that was identified as depicting the co-founders of Global Disability Inclusion, LLC (GDI), a St. Augustine, FL-based consulting firm specializing in providing disability inclusion strategies and solutions to Fortune Global 500 companies and federal contractors, incorrectly ran with the accompanying story in this department about GDI being certified as a women’s business enterprise by Washington, DC-based Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) National Council (WBENC). The photo should’ve only depicted and identified Meg O'Connell, GDI president.