There are 125 million formal micro, small, and midsize businesses in the world. 89 million of those businesses are in emerging markets. Small business moves the global economy, no doubt about it.
Starting and running a company can provide a higher quality of life, significant positive community impact, and the utmost in personal actualization. Yet, the statistics of business ownership are bleak. The likelihood of a new business surviving more than five years is around 50%. Often this means people investing all of their time, money, and social capital in a coin-flip.
There must be a better way.
The Small Business Administration, campus incubators, credit union business counselors, and digital mentors, along with countless software programs all exist to assist the “wantrepreneur”... But, while these tools and resources improve everyday, they have not yet remedied the dismal performance rate of new businesses. What is missing?
The Patterns for Success challenge is founded on the belief that the struggle of small business owners is largely unnecessary.
In the vast majority of cases, it can be traced to missing key ingredients for success: essential education and the subsequent empowerment that it provides. Thousands of books and seminars sell any number of different business coaching techniques, but in keeping with the instantaneous pace of our current age, we can and need to do better in getting this information into the hands of those who need it most.
What are the patterns for success? What sequence, ingredients, and tools will greatly improve the business founders’ likelihood of success? We’re reaching out to the Global Innovator Community to create a new curriculum. A tool that is accessible and engaging for small business owners. That is what will bring this vision into reality.
This curriculum needs to not only embody the knowledge base that will accelerate success, it needs to inspire its participants to complete the training and ultimately, take action. If you would like to solve this challenge, sign up as an Innovator in the Patterns for Success challenge!
We seek to solve this problem because we know that local communities benefit when small businesses thrive. Small business owners thrive when they have the knowledge to be successful.
Imagine the multiplier effect of creative and entrepreneurial individuals properly empowered: enhancing the quality of life across communities of all sizes with well-paying jobs and localized economies. That would be a success for all of us.
