[Right Brother]

20% of small businesses fail in their first year, 30% of small business fail in their second year, and 50% of small businesses fail after five years in business

If I add those up, 100% of all small businesses are out of business in 5 years?

[Alas Babylon!]

No, it’s like this.

Say you start with 100 small businesses.

After the first year, there are only 80.

After the second year, there are only 56.

After 5 years, only 28 left.

After 10 years, of those 28 that survived, only 19 (actually, 19.6) survive.

I suppose you could simplify and say 81% of small businesses fail after 10 years...

Or I’m wrong.

I got the numbers from the government, after all!

https://www.bls.gov/bdm/entrepreneurship/entrepreneurship.htm