So it may come as a surprise that the US actually ranks in the gutter internationally according to some important small business metrics. According to the report An International Comparison of Small Business Employment, compiled from OECD data and published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the US ranks near the bottom of a set of 22 industrialized nations on all metrics examined.
The report found that whether in manufacturing, computer related services or research and development, the fraction of US residents employed in small businesses was lower than in countries such as Germany, Japan, and the UK, often by significant margins.
I thought these findings were very interesting in light of the rhetoric paid to the importance of small business in the US. As someone who believes strongly in the importance of small business as a proxy for entrepreneurial initiative, these findings worry me. Does our image of a nation of rugged entrepreneurs and innovators belong more to the realm of myth than actual reality?
This is hard to know. While the quality of our startups and small businesses is certainly more important than the quantity, it is also true that entrepreneurial success is assisted by the ecosystems that build up around large concentrations of ventures. The successes of venture communities in Silicon Valley, NYC, and Austin, TX certainly point to this.
A common view that I subscribe to, and one that is echoed in this report, is that the difficult task of starting a business is compounded greatly by a lack of access to affordable health care services in comparison to other countries. It is no trivial thing to quit a job with guaranteed health benefits to start a company with a significant risk of failure, and many commentators believe that affordable job-independent health care would greatly contribute to a long term increase in the number of successful small businesses.
I thought these findings were very interesting in light of the rhetoric paid to the importance of small business in the US. As someone who believes strongly in the importance of small business as a proxy for entrepreneurial initiative, these findings worry me. Does our image of a nation of rugged entrepreneurs and innovators belong more to the realm of myth than actual reality?
This is hard to know. While the quality of our startups and small businesses is certainly more important than the quantity, it is also true that entrepreneurial success is assisted by the ecosystems that build up around large concentrations of ventures. The successes of venture communities in Silicon Valley, NYC, and Austin, TX certainly point to this.
A common view that I subscribe to, and one that is echoed in this report, is that the difficult task of starting a business is compounded greatly by a lack of access to affordable health care services in comparison to other countries. It is no trivial thing to quit a job with guaranteed health benefits to start a company with a significant risk of failure, and many commentators believe that affordable job-independent health care would greatly contribute to a long term increase in the number of successful small businesses.
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