Why We Support Entrepreneurship & Small Businesses
There are numerous reasons why a major focus of our purpose and mission is on supporting entrepreneurship and small business. To begin, small businesses benefit their local communities in many ways. According to the Small Business Administration, over half of Americans either work for or own a small business, and are responsible for around 2 out of every 3 new jobs created in the United States each year. Data from the Census Bureau's Annual Business Survey (Data for 2018) on small business employer firms show that 18.3% were minority-owned, about 29% were family-owned, and 18% were owned by immigrants.
Small local businesses also increase the local tax base, which contributes to the revenue available for municipalities to make essential improvements to the schools, roads, and other infrastructure serving the local community. When people spend money locally, the taxes generated benefit their community, improving their own lives in the process.
Small business owners, leaders, and entrepreneurs are also innovators. Many small businesses are founded to solve or take a new approach to a problem. This often involves providing new, reimagined, and innovative products and services that ultimately benefit others. To attract consumers, small businesses also strive to differentiate themselves from larger corporations and to provide value through unique, superior, or even new products and services. Consumers have more power and more choices when businesses are forced to compete for market share.
We could say much, much more about the importance of entrepreneurship and small business, particularly in terms of how they positively impact their communities and provide people with not only employment opportunities, but also a path to financial stability and wealth through entrepreneurship, small business ownership, and innovation. Unfortunately, they also have high failure rates. For example, Census Bureau Business Dynamics Statistics shows that between 1994-2019, new employer establishments had a two-year survival rate of only 67.6%, a five-year survival rate of 48.9%, and a ten-year survival rate of only 33.6%.
This summary briefly highlights only a few of the many reasons why a focus of The LISBI is on supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses. The information provided also helps illuminate the connection between individual quality of life, the health of local communities, innovation, and small business-entrepreneurship.
Thank you again for visiting us! We welcome you to our community and look forward to the things to come as we continue working to bring our resources online.
- The LISBI Team
