{"id":650,"date":"2015-09-02T10:00:35","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T10:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/?p=650"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:20:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:20:23","slug":"entrepreneurship-by-the-numbers-how-do-you-measure-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/entrepreneurship-by-the-numbers-how-do-you-measure-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneurship by the numbers. How do you measure up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The September 2015 issue of Inc. magazine is devoted to the \u201cInc. 500 \u2013 the 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America.\u201d\u00a0 Over the next several postings, I\u2019ll try to glean some wisdom from the leaders of the Inc. 500 companies . . . try to discern what they believe made them successful.\u00a0 But first, let\u2019s talk about entrepreneurship in general.\u00a0 Inc. has collected some statistics which, taken together, outline what we might call the \u201ctraditional\u201d path to entrepreneurship.\u00a0 You may be interested in learning whether your entrepreneurial journey followed this \u201ctraditional\u201d path, or followed a path entirely of your own making.\u00a0 If so, please continue reading below.<\/span><\/p>\n

Entrepreneurship by the numbers.\u00a0 How do you measure up?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up, almost 2\/3 <\/strong>of the Inc. 500 founders had parents, siblings, or other extended family members who were entrepreneurs.<\/span><\/p>\n

88% <\/strong>hold college degrees or higher.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over 2\/3 <\/strong>of those founders started their first business before their 30th<\/sup> birthday.<\/span><\/p>\n

60% <\/strong>of all Inc. 500 founders have started more than one business, and 76% <\/strong>of all have never had to close a business.<\/span><\/p>\n

57% <\/strong>of Inc. 500 companies were founded by their CEO, while an additional 36% <\/strong>we\u2019re started by co-founders.\u00a0 Of those co-founded companies, 43%<\/strong> of the co-founders were close friends . . . only 14%<\/strong> were co-founded by family members.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over 2\/3<\/strong> of Inc. 500 founders say their founding team is still intact.<\/span><\/p>\n

58%<\/strong> of Inc. 500 founders started their first business with less than $10,000.\u00a0 86%<\/strong> have never used venture capital funding.\u00a0 Apparently a debt averse crowd, 71%<\/strong> started with their own personal savings.<\/span><\/p>\n

24%<\/strong> of Inc. 500 CEOs waited three years or more before drawing a paycheck.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only about 1\/3 <\/strong>of Inc. 500 companies came to market with a unique product or service that didn\u2019t exist before.\u00a0 The remaining 2\/3<\/strong> began by bringing improvements to existing products or services.<\/span><\/p>\n

89%<\/strong> sell their products or services to other businesses while only 34%<\/strong> sell to consumers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where did Inc. 500 founders decide to locate their new company?\u00a0 44%<\/strong> chose a location near friends and family.\u00a0 30%<\/strong> were influenced by a pre-existing customer base.\u00a0 19%<\/strong> wanted to be in a community friendly to startups, or where there was a concentration of similar businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now remember, these stats are taken from what Inc. magazine believes are the top 500 entrepreneurial companies in the country . . . the best of the best.\u00a0 If we were to look at the same stats for all<\/span><\/em> privately held, entrepreneurial companies, we would probably see some significant differences.\u00a0 Still, if you want to compare yourself to something, wouldn\u2019t you want to compare yourself to the best?<\/span><\/p>\n

In the next several postings we\u2019ll look at some of the Inc. 500 leaders . . . at their behavioral traits, their leadership styles, and at what they did (or didn\u2019t do) to earn a place in this very elite group of companies.\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The September 2015 issue of Inc. magazine is devoted to the \u201cInc. 500 \u2013 the 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America.\u201d\u00a0 Over the next several postings, I\u2019ll try to glean some wisdom from the leaders of the Inc. 500 companies . . . try to discern what they believe made them successful.\u00a0 But first,<\/p>\n

Read More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,26,22],"tags":[100,98,99],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}