Joshua Kennon, About.com Guide to Beginner’s Investing, reported in his blog post that according to a research paper from the Ewin Marion Kauffman Foundation, The Economic Future Just Happened, some findings about small business are found encouraging:
Recessions and bear markets don’t appear to have significant impact on new businesses survivability.
More than half of the companies on the 2009 Fortune 500 list, and just a bit under half of the 2008 Inc. list, were started up during a period of recession or bear market.
Job creation from small business startups are much less volatile and sensitive to economic downturns.
Comparing those facts with the recent news that Yahoo! is divesting as they plan to sell HotJobs and Yahoo! Small Business to interested buyers, we could imply that bigger, more established businesses seem to struggle badly and less responsive and resilient compared to the startups.
What those findings mean for you and I
Those new research findings are quite motivating and encouraging. To some, this findings may give hope that their struggle in surviving the recession is well worth it. I am surviving the recession and on my way to even thrive in the midst of the recession – I expect and truly hope you to do so, too.
We do know that history is often repeating itself and following a certain pattern. We are in the middle of a historic economic downturn, and according to the history so far, today is probably the best time to start new businesses or prepare your business for the economic recovery.
Of course – Why not?
Ivan Widjaya
Thriving small business startups
Image by clix.