Improving the survival rate for small businesses

I was talking with a group of small-business people yesterday. A couple of them happened to mention that the great majority of small businesses fail. And that there are a great many reasons why they fail, from insufficient capital to poor planning and bad management.

This got me thinking: There may be nothing anyone can do to prevent a disorganized or dimwitted entrepreneur from destroying his start-up. But why should we all assume that this huge rate of infant-business mortality is inevitable and immutable? 

Why couldn’t the teaching of certain practices and the establishment of helpful programs increase the number of young businesses that survive and thrive the same way that proper nutrition, regular obstetrical check-ups and well-baby examinations help more mothers and infants stay alive?

And why don’t more of our communities see the survival of small businesses as a priority?

I think the answer to all three is: There’s no good reason why small business remains so unsupported. And I think communities everywhere owe it to themselves to get busy and create development programs that will allow more entrepreneurs to succeed.

The arts sector has been leading the way for several years now. Many cities, universities, arts councils and development agencies have recognized that artist-entrepreneurs have enormous potential as creative economic drivers, but need guidance in best business practices and access to resources in order to make their enterprises viable.

Cleveland is one of the nation’s leaders in this, with its unique Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute co-founded and run by the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE) and the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture and also the COSE Arts Network, which provides information, educational opportunities and resources to member artist-entrepreneurs. 

Because of such imaginative efforts, encouragement of arts-based businesses has become a national trend.  

But it shouldn’t be limited to the arts. After all, nearly every business starts small, even those that eventually become giant conglomerates. (Coca-Cola? One pharmacist with a recipe. GE? One tinkerer who invented a lightbulb. Google? Two guys with a computer). The one or two people who start a small business often have a great idea, vision and drive, but relatively little experience with management – and even less money. 

They need guidance, mentoring, moral support, access to investors and bridge loans or grants to help them take that all-important step from struggling to self-sustaining. Perhaps what we need to set up for them – as we do for those needing health care – is community clinics: resource centers where any small-business entrepreneur can go to find all those things and learn to make effective use of them.

Can we let any expectant mother go untutored and uncared-for? Can we justify letting any child be born unhealthy and live unattended? 

Can we afford to let any good idea die? 

No. So let’s get going.