Popular folklore vs. Hard data

Popular folklore may have you believe that 9 out of 10 companies that are started fail within few years of inception. That is an old wives tale! (maybe she did not want her husband to leave that secure job & paycheck!)

According to a recent study conducted by SBA, 33% of businesses started survive beyond 10 years. See the detailed report here.

So the real challenge is not about business survival. It is about having a meaningful impact.

High growth large businesses

The same report outlines that most of the businesses that do survive do not get to any meaningful size i.e. more than 20 employees. Further, it states that less than 3% experience high growth 10 years after formation. Here high growth is defined as more than 50% increase in the number of employees year over year in the 10th year with a minimum increase of 5 employees. (its okay, you can read that again!)

Further less than 0.15% (842 businesses out of 538,145 businesses started 10 years ago) reached over 500 employees 10 years after formation.

Three kinds of business owners

So, there are three kinds of new business owners.

• Business owners whose businesses will not survive (over 60%)
• Business owners who will be happy running a small business (20-35%)
• Entrepreneurial business owners & CEOs who will create large profitable businesses (remaining 2-5%)

If you are one of the 2-5% who will create the high profit high growth organizations of tomorrow you will find the services Evergreen offers invaluable and unique. If you have a pressing business problem you need help with, go ahead and schedule a time to talk. There is no cost or obligation.

So what makes entrepreneurial CEOs and the companies they build so successful? Five things