The Leading Edge - Spring 2012 - 8

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP GROWING AROUND THE WORLD
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a worldwide project that conducts an annual assessment of entrepreneurial activity, recently released its 2011 report. The report, which interviewed more than 140,000 adults ages 18 to 64 in 54 economies in diverse geographies and development levels, estimated 388 million entrepreneurs were actively engaged in starting and running new businesses in 2011. This number is up from the 250 million entrepreneurs the organization reported in its 2010 report. The 2011 number also includes an estimated 163 million women early-stage entrepreneurs, 165 million young early-stage entrepreneurs (ages 18 to 35), 141 million early-stage entrepreneurs who expect to create at least five new jobs in the next five years and 65 million early-stage entrepreneurs who expect to create 20 or more new jobs in the next five years. In the United States, the total early-stage entrepreneurial activity rate, or percentage of the working-age population actively involved in business start-ups, was at 12.3 percent in 2011, up from 7.6 percent in 2010 and close to its all-time high of 12.4 percent in 2005. For more statistics and information, view the report at www.gemconsortium.org/docs/cat/1/global-reports.

continued from page 7 determine what information is critically important to the success of their business.” Mirabile implemented systems to gain information such as how often people log onto the site, how they use it and where they spend the bulk of their time. The data enables Mirabile to improve the business by serving his customers better. Analysis need not be costly—businesses can create focus groups and offer their company’s products or services in exchange for participation. Companies also can simply better organize their existing data to create useful information. For example, a retail store can organize its customer information in a spreadsheet to identify from which cities their clients come and better tailor its services based on the socioeconomic characteristics ascribed to those locations. Knowing just what its users want has helped Hotlist grow—it has about 400,000 users and is growing at a rate of 25 percent per month. Realistic Entrepreneurs often lack the real businessworld knowledge executives of established businesses have, says Ed Harrell, managing partner of early-stage equity investor Harrell Capital Partners in Maryland and entrepreneur in residence at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania. “People read about Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, who is worth $18 billion at less than 30 years old, and have unrealistic expectations as to how easy it is to start a company and how quickly you can become successful,” Harrell says. “It takes more than passion and a good idea.” Executives of established businesses use their experience to set realistic expectations. Potential funders of entrepreneurial businesses want to see similar realism and want benchmarks set to prove the investment is being used wisely and the business is progressing. “I meet with a lot of entrepreneurs, and once I start asking them questions about how they’re going to execute an idea, they have no clue,” Harrell says. “They have a good idea, but it’s not thought through. They haven’t thought about cash flow or international outreach or things like that. And that’s something that business leaders think through every day. Before they can present an idea to their boss, they have to show how it will benefit the company and be a good use of the company’s resources. Entrepreneurs should think of it the same way.” Shared lessons “Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a VP at a Fortune 500 company, you can always get smarter and should never stop learning,” Davis says. “Whatever you’re doing today is going to be different tomorrow. The world is changing fast, and business is a Darwinian world. Those who evolve will survive, and those who don’t, wont. And the way to survive is to be constantly learning.” LE

SPRING 2012

The Leading Edge - Spring 2012

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