Posts Tagged ‘Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index’

Dreamers or Doers?

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

I was fascinated to read the new study from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, which offers an in-depth examination of the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index.  The Index includes a number of measures supporting entrepreneurial endeavors. This year, the U.S. fell to third place in the ranking, behind Denmark and Canada.  The researchers found Americans to score higher in aspirations but lower in entrepreneurial activities. Stated more plainly: more Americans fantasize about launching their own businesses, but fewer follow through with the plans. This finding resonated with me as when I was in the process of media interviews for the first edition of our book, I found a lack of interest in the foundations upon which small businesses are built. I finally figured out that the news media outlets I was pitching were not really addressing true entrepreneurs. Rather, their readers would pay $4.95 for a newsstand copy of a magazine about small business to indulge their fantasies of leaving their jobs and pursuing their dreams. Certain media outlets are serving up entrepreneurship as passive entertainment. So I stopped wasting my time chasing the dreamers and devised a new strategy to reach the doers. Good insight for my book marketing, but bad implications for our economic future.