Upper Hand

7Owning the Moment

What if the future of work isn't just about getting a job but is also about creating one?

Small business creation is a key driver in securing the jobs of tomorrow. In the United States, small businesses account for almost 50 percent of the country's private workforce. Before the recession, small businesses alone added 1.8 million new jobs to the economy.

Having muddled through a pandemic and an economic recession over the past decade, entrepreneurship growth rates across states have waned, comparing a decline of 17.1 percentage points between 2019 and 2020 with just 6.9 percent of businesses created between 2008 and 2009, according to a Kauffman Foundation study.

The types of businesses that have emerged have changed drastically, thanks to the internet. No longer do you need large amounts of capital to put your idea into the marketplace. Thanks to online platforms, instant access to customers, and the growth of several social media tools, creating, launching, marketing, and growing a business has never been easier.

While in undergrad, I launched an online newswire service business with a friend. The business wasn't anything to write home about, and it certainly didn't land me in the pages of Forbes, but it was an easy setup that only required a $10 domain name, a quick blog design I paid about $300 for a classmate who was studying graphic design to create, and a free email marketing platform I could use to reach prospective customers.

The company was called ...