In fact, I teach 30-60 students a year at the U. of Dayton, mostly jr.s and sr.s Their first project is to do a family business history---to find someone in their family who has or has had a business. Surprisingly, in about three years of doing this (+ or - 100 students), I have only had 2-3 who did not have a family member who owned his own business or who had owned one (usually grandparents in the latter case).
What surprised me, knowing the statistics as I do about companies not being profitable for at least two years, is that recently, I'd say 80-90% of the firms were profitable in a year or less. Some have really boomed. Grunder Landscaping, for example: Marty Grunder was a student who came back to UD as a very young man, having started his own landscaping company in HIGH SCHOOL, and today has a multi-million-dollar company with 40 full-time employees.
Interestingly, though, at least FOUR other students have parents or uncles who have started competitors to Grunder, including Buckeye Ecocare, a booming landscaping company.
Most of the family businesses (I'd say 30%) are restaurants/catering/carry-out. These, on average, aren't as big as some of the others, but I didn't detect from my questions to students any unhappiness on the part of their family members.
Another 20% or so are computer-related home businesses that either do on-site work, at-home consulting (I've had several home-based computer sales, everything from labels to gadgets), and general diagnostic. The balance of the firms are insurance, tax preparation, small manufacturing (aluminum siding, special parts, even some heavy machinery).
I don't claim my "teaching" has had one IOTA worth of impact on these firms, because they were in existence when I got the kids. My point was to have the kids see how much entrepreneurship is out there, and how many self-made men and women there are.
Now take off your freaking nasty hat.
I have only had 2-3 who did not have a family member who owned his own business or who had owned one.
That is an amazing stat. But in my own family, yea, there's an uncle who owns his own biz. Interesting.
Most of the family businesses (I'd say 30%) are restaurants/catering/carry-out. ... Another 20% or so are computer-related home businesses that either do on-site work, at-home consulting (I've had several home-based computer sales, everything from labels to gadgets), and general diagnostic. The balance of the firms are insurance, tax preparation, small manufacturing (aluminum siding, special parts, even some heavy machinery).
Alright, this is great. You have actual hands-on experience with American businesses. Excellent. Now, the types of businesses described above probably don't have that much exposure to offshore outsourcing (with the exception of the co's. in the last sentence) - can we agree on this?
I think I'm coming to an understanding of your point-of-view. However, I think that outsourcing is a threat to middle-class folks who are employed by fortune 500 firms who sit in cubicles. These people are at risk, imho.
I'm for free trade as an ideal, but for fair trade in order to cushion the blow.
Now take off your freaking nasty hat.
It's off, but I think you had the same hat on in some of your own posts. Thanks for the post. Oh hey - any good books you can recommend on starting a small biz?