Entrepreneurship is amazing. It enables us to live life on our own terms without answering to anyone.
At the core, an entrepreneur is just a problem solver. It’s a person who solves problems for a profit. In case you didn’t know, entrepreneurship has seen a 95% growth in the past year.(1)
More and more young people want to get away from their job. Probably because they expected something else from a job before they actually joined the workforce.
They probably expected it to be like in school. But they soon found out that in a corporate job, you need to act as an obedient slave, otherwise you get fired.
In the past years, entrepreneurship has become quite mainstream to be honest. The biggest problem with that it’s obviously the amount of misinformation out there.
It’s so difficult to find reliable sources to get your information from. That’s why we decided to write this article.
So, if you’re here to learn some cold hard facts about entrepreneurship, you’re in the right place! In this article, we will go over the most important stats about entrepreneurs, as well as how to take advantage of them.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
9 MOST IMPORTANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP STATISTICS
1. HOW MANY AMERICANS ARE RUNNING THEIR OWN BUSINESS?
2. HOW MANY AMERICANS ARE SELF EMPLOYED?
3. WHAT IS THE AVERAGE AGE OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS?
4. WHAT PERCENTAGE OF BUSINESS OWNERS HAVE A BACHELOR DEGREE?
5. WHERE DO MOST AMERICANS START THEIR BUSINESSES?
6. HOW MANY SELF EMPLOYED AMERICANS MAKE MORE MONEY THAN AT BEFORE?
7. WHY DID MOST ENTREPRENEURS START THEIR OWN BUSINESS?
8. WHO HAS THE MOST SUCCESS IN BUSINESS?
9. HOW MANY BILLIONAIRES ARE SELF MADE?
FINAL THOUGHTS
9 MOST IMPORTANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP STATISTICS
First, it’s a good idea to go over the most important entrepreneurship statistics. These are the ones that every aspiring entrepreneur needs to know.
22.5% of small businesses fail in their first year
15 million Americans are self employed
60% of entrepreneurs are between the ages of 40 and 60 when they start their first business
More than 95% of entrepreneurs have a bachelor degree, or even a master’s degree
69% of entrepreneurs start their first business at home
More than 50% of entrepreneurs make more money than they were at their job
More than 25% of entrepreneurs started their business because they wanted to be free
Middle aged are the most successful at business
55.8% of billionaires are self made
Some of these may seem logical. Others may seem a bit hard to believe.
We will now analyze each and every one of them. Also, we will look at what you can learn from each of them individually, so that you don’t make the same mistakes as others.(2)
1. HOW MANY AMERICANS ARE RUNNING THEIR OWN BUSINESS?
At the moment, there are over 30 million Americans who operate their own business. This is quite a high number if you think about it.
There are 328 million residents in the U.S. Meaning that almost 10% are entrepreneurs. Not only that, but 60% of Americans believe that it’s a good idea to start their own business.
We can deduce that the U.S. citizens recognize the fact that they live in the most capitalist country on the planet, and they see the potential of their location.
So … coming back to the original statistic. If 30 million Americans run their own business, how many of them are actually successful?
22.5% of businesses fail in their first year. If you ask me, that’s not such a high number. Also, it’s quite understandable that nearly a quarter of businesses fail.
Why? Because if you don’t have experience, or at least some kind of financial education, you will have a hard time competing in a market where there are experienced entrepreneurs.
Conclusion: have the right mindset when starting your own business. It’s not as easy as people say. You need the right education in order to have success in business.(3)
2. HOW MANY AMERICANS ARE SELF EMPLOYED?
There are currently more than 15 million Americans who are full time self employed.
This shouldn’t be confused with the previous statistic, as self employed doesn’t mean that they operate their own business.
Self employed can mean that they are writers, graphic designers, and so on. They sell their services on Fiverr and work as much time as they please.(4)
We can deduce that Americans have a special relationship with the idea of not being employed by someone else.
Conclusion: If you have some kind of skill, consider being a freelancer for a while so that you can sustain yourself financially. In the meantime, you can start your own business. At some point, you will not need to work with clients anymore and run your business full time.
3. WHAT IS THE AVERAGE AGE OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS?
More than half of the people who start their own business are between the ages of 40 and 60.
It’s important to note that this stat includes the people who start their first business. This is very interesting to be honest.
We can deduce that people are very calculated and wait for the right time when thinking about starting a business. They think that it’s a good idea to gain some experience before jumping straight into the business world.
That’s not a bad thing, but as an entrepreneur, you need to have courage. You can learn marketing before the age of 40. Especially now, in the internet age.(5)
Conclusion: Don’t be scared to invest in yourself and start a business while you’re young. I can tell you from personal experience that you can have a successful online business in your 20. The internet has changed the way we view business, and we should all take advantage of this amazing opportunity.
4. WHAT PERCENTAGE OF BUSINESS OWNERS HAVE A BACHELOR DEGREE?
Almost all (95%) entrepreneurs have at least a bachelor degree. Most of them even have a master’s degree.(6)
This can be quite shocking, I know. After watching “The Social Network” and other movies from this genre, this stat can really surprise you.
It is a well known fact that a lot of billionaires dropped out of college and went on to create multi billion dollar companies.
Look, as an entrepreneur with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, I can tell you that after graduating, it doesn’t feel that university helped me so much. To be honest, I feel that the online courses I took after graduating were more helpful.
The thing is that college does help you a little. You don’t notice it, but it does. It teaches you how to manage your workload, how to think, how to speak properly and other small things.
Do I think it’s mandatory to go to university in order to be a successful entrepreneur? Heck, no!
But I also can’t tell you that it’s a waste of time.
Conclusion: If you don’t want to go to college, don’t get discouraged. You can take a couple of online courses regarding business and you will be just fine. However, if you have the possibility to get a bachelor’s degree, I suggest you do it.
5. WHERE DO MOST AMERICANS START THEIR BUSINESSES?
Nearly 3 quarters (69%) of Americans start their first business at home.
This might not seem surprising at all. But if you would have told me this statistic 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have believed it.
We can see how popular online business has become. And how fast the internet is changing.
We are so lucky that we can start an online business for a relatively cheap price. We can deduce that from yet another interesting statistic: More than 80% of online entrepreneurs fund their own business.(7)
Conclusion: Needless to say, I suggest you start an online business if you have the time to invest in it. It doesn’t really cost much nowadays. You can start an affiliate website for less than 200$.
6. HOW MANY SELF EMPLOYED AMERICANS MAKE MORE MONEY THAN AT BEFORE?
More than half of the self employed Americans make more money by working on their own than at their job.
This is very encouraging for people who want to be their own boss. Statistically, you are much happier when you don’t have a job.
Working for yourself enables you to make your own schedule, therefore have more freedom in your life. You can make more money than working for someone else.(8)
Also, you can have more time to spend with your family. There’s nothing better than that.
Conclusion: There’s really nothing better than being self employed. You don’t need to answer to anyone for anything. I remember the time when I was working my 9 to 5 and I would be late for work, my boss would threaten to fire me. Needless to say, I don’t have that problem anymore. And my former boss is probably still stuck there.
7. WHY DID MOST ENTREPRENEURS START THEIR OWN BUSINESS?
More than 25% of entrepreneurs started their business because of the idea of not working for someone else.
Freedom is probably the biggest reason why people start their businesses. To be honest, I expected this number to be much higher than 25%.
If you think about it, what would you prefer? Making $25k per month while working 10 hours every day?(9,10)
Or making $10k per month while working 2 hours per day? It’s safe to say that most people would prefer the second option.
Also, only 8% of entrepreneurs started their business for the purpose of getting more money. We can deduce that not money is the primary reason for starting a business, but freedom.
Conclusion: In my experience, you feel more motivated when your goal is freedom. If your purpose is just getting “more money”, you will most likely not have the determination to work and hustle every day. Set your goal based on how much freedom do you want to have in your life. You will be surprised at how motivated you will feel.
8. WHO HAS THE MOST SUCCESS IN BUSINESS?
The most successful businesses are started by middle aged men.
If you’ve searched anything in regards to business on YouTube, you saw all the 19 year old “gurus” that ask you to buy their course because it will get you to $100k per month.
In reality, the middle aged men have the most success because they have experience.
If you’re younger than 30, don’t panic! That doesn’t mean that you can’t be successful for the next 10 years.
Again, the internet opened so many possibilities for us. My advice is to not take this statistic too seriously.(11,12)
When talking about online businesses, the most successful entrepreneurs are younger than 30-35 years old. I guarantee you. That’s because the older you get, the least up to date you are with technology.
Conclusion: It’s obvious that the older you get, the more experience you have. Therefore, the higher your chancer are to run a successful business. If you are young, leverage the power of the internet in your favor. It has A TON of potential.
9. HOW MANY BILLIONAIRES ARE SELF MADE?
55.8% of billionaires are self made.
Did you expect this number to be higher? Yeah, me too.
A little more than half of the billionaires are self-made. I guess that means that … billionaires die too. No matter how much money they have.(13,14)
So, they leave their fortunes to their children. Also, it’s important to note than 18% of billionaires are a combination between inheritances and their own business endeavors.
Conclusion: Even billionaires need a bit of help. Don’t hold back when you need help as well! There’s no shame in asking for advice from people who have what you want.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Hopefully, you enjoyed these cool entrepreneur statistics as much as I did.
Being an entrepreneur is great. The biggest advantage is that you make your own schedule and don’t take sh*t from anyone.
It’s a lot of hard work in the beginning, but it’s worth it in the long run.