Trends, Successes, and Failures in New Ventures

  1. Objective 3-4 Discuss the trends in small business start-ups and identify the main reasons for success and failure among small businesses.

For every Sam Walton, Mark Zuckerberg, Mary Kay Ash, or Bill Gates—entrepreneurs who transformed small businesses into big ones—there are many entrepreneurs who fail. Each year, generally between 610,000 and 835,000 new businesses are launched in the United States. On the other hand, between 605,000 and 805,000 businesses fail each year.20 In 2016, for instance, approximately 665,000 new firms started operations and another 690,000 closed down. In this section, we look first at a few key trends in small business start-ups. Then we examine some of the reasons ...

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