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By Timothy Askew; reprinted from Inc<\/a>. with the kind permission of Timothy Askew.<\/em><\/p>\n American entrepreneurship may well be dying a slow and ignominious death. Last year, Leigh Buchanan, editor-at-large of Inc<\/em>. Magazine, in an article titled \u201cAmerican Entrepreneurship Is Actually Vanishing,\u201d quoted John Dearie, EVP for Policy at the Financial Services Forum as saying: \u00a0\u201cNew businesses are disproportionately responsible for the innovation that drives productivity and economic growth, and they account for virtually all job creation\u2026.I would say, as a policy person, [declining entrepreneurship] is nothing short of a national emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n A national emergency? \u00a0Then why did both recently concluded Republican and Democratic national conventions say so little about it? \u00a0In this dire and unpalatable political season we surely need more said about our increasingly troubled entrepreneurial sector. \u00a0Donald and Hillary seem pretty indifferent. \u00a0Yet this is serious stuff for everyone, not just entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n Buchanan of Inc. cites the Brooking Institutions\u2019s recent conclusion that census data indicates more businesses are dying than are being born. \u00a0(The Census Bureau reports 400,000 new businesses being born annually, while 470,000 are dying.) \u00a0That ain\u2019t good for the throbbing heart of American business. \u00a0And it is alarming for our future.<\/p>\n Jim Clifton, Chairman & CEO of Gallup, says the following: \u00a0\u201cLet\u2019s get one thing clear: \u00a0This economy is never truly coming back unless we reverse the birth and death trends of American business\u2026.I don\u2019t want to sound like a doomsayer, but when small and medium-sized businesses are dying faster than they\u2019re being born, so is free enterprise. \u00a0And when free enterprise dies, America dies with it.\u201d \u00a0Pretty grim words.<\/p>\n And things are worse for millennial entrepreneurship. \u00a0Last year a\u00a0WSJ\u00a0small business column contained the following information.<\/p>\n \u201cRoughly 3.6% of households headed by adults younger than 30 owned stakes in private companies, according to an analysis by\u00a0The Wall Street Journal\u00a0of recently released Federal Reserve data from 2013. \u00a0That compares\u00a0with 10.6% in 1989\u2013when the central bank began collecting standard data on Americans\u2019 incomes and net worth\u2013and 6.1% in 2010.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Some of the common explanations for the remarkable decline of millennial entrepreneurship include a lethargic recovery from the 2008 recession, lower savings rates, crushing student debt, and overly rigorous new bank lending standards. \u00a0Equally important is the massively increased level of regulation that militates against small business formation. \u00a0Much of this regulation is directed at our misbehaving big business brethren, who can easily absorb the extra cost. \u00a0Not so bootstrapping young entrepreneurs. (Niall Ferguson of Harvard calls our brave new business world \u201cplanet government.\u201d \u00a0Ferguson cites Clyde Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who notes that over-regulation costs are 36% higher\/employee for small business than for big business. \u00a0And the Federal Register\u2013the official directory of regulation\u2013today is 78,961 pages. \u00a0In 1986 it was 44,812 pages and in 1936 it was 2,620.)<\/p>\n Note this hypothetical from a LinkedIn Pulse essay of January, 2016 by Zachary Slayback.<\/p>\n \u201cA few decades ago, Tina may have started a small salon out of her basement when she realized that she had a knack for designing nice and fun haircuts for her friends and family and also realized that this could\u00a0earn her some extra money for her kids. \u00a0She\u2019d clear some space away in the basement, put up a sign advertising her service, and even have her nephew man the front desk as business picked up. \u00a0Not so today. \u00a0Today she\u2019d have to pass a number of boards and certifying examinations saying that she is qualified to provide this service, get a commercial license from her local government, incorporate as a business, get a federal\u00a0EIN for tax purposes, buy a regulation-friendly sign, and hire staff at a much higher price than her nephew was willing to do the work. \u00a0And that\u2019s just to get off the ground and get started\u2026.The problem isn\u2019t that fewer\u00a0people\u00a0can\u2019t start businesses but rather that people don\u2019t want to start businesses.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n (If you want more on this topic, try my Inc. column,\u00a0How Too Much Government Regulation is Killing the Entrepreneurial Golden Goose.<\/a>)<\/p>\n Additionally, there is also a moral and spiritual problem for young entrepreneurs. They lack encouragement and cultural support for creative risk-taking. \u00a0The \u201ceveryone-gets-a-trophy\u201d narrative of current teaching and educational philosophy creates a trope of entitlement. \u00a0It does not inspire and summon the animal spirits and competitive incentivization necessary for risky new business enterprise. \u00a0Caution and laziness become endemic. \u00a0Impassioned courage and individual vision are culturally muffled.<\/p>\n The potential death of entrepreneurship is like a slowly boiling a frog. \u00a0The frog never knows he\u2019s in trouble till he is dead. \u00a0So it is with the increasingly stressed, increasingly regulated small business climate for entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton gave perfunctory lip-service to the problems of small business in their convention acceptance speeches, but if you blinked you missed it. \u00a0A passing nod is not enough to cure the growing conundrums of the small business ecosphere. \u00a0Our whole economy depends on healthy small business for macro economic health. \u00a0It merits a little more attention from the political powers that be.<\/p>\n Image: Pixabay<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n By Timothy Askew; reprinted from Inc. with the kind permission of Timothy Askew. American entrepreneurship may well be dying a slow and ignominious death. Last year, Leigh Buchanan, editor-at-large of Inc. Magazine, in an article titled \u201cAmerican Entrepreneurship Is Actually Vanishing,\u201d quoted John Dearie, EVP for Policy at the Financial Services Forum as saying: \u00a0\u201cNew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117,270],"tags":[740,1360,1359,680],"class_list":["post-3613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics-2","category-entrepreneurship-2","tag-enterprise","tag-free-enterprise","tag-regulation","tag-small-business"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"TimAskew_15538\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/436\/2015\/11\/TimAskew_15538.jpg\")
<\/a>Tim Askew is the owner of sales firm Corporate Rain International<\/a> and a member of the Inc. Business Owners Council.<\/a> He has several advanced degrees, and has been a tennis pro, actor, opera singer, Broadway producer, dishwasher, bartender, minister, and college assistant dean. Askew is the author of the book The Poetry of Small Business<\/a> (available on Amazon).\u00a0<\/em> @TimothyAskew<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"