The Face of Entrepreneurship in 2017

Intuit, in partnership with the Institute for the Future, released the first installment of their Intuit Future of Small Business Report™ today. The report identifies three major trends: a significant increase in the diversity of entrepreneurs, the rise of personal business and free agency, and the continued growth of entrepreneurial education. Those trends led the researchers to five major findings:

• Entrepreneurs will no longer come predominantly from the middle of the age spectrum, but instead from the edges. People nearing retirement and their children just entering the job market will set the bar as the most entrepreneurial generation ever.
• American entrepreneurship will reflect a huge upswing in the number of women. The glass ceiling that has limited women’s growth in traditional corporate career paths will send a rich talent pool to the small business sector.
• Immigrant entrepreneurs will drive a new wave of globalization. U.S. immigration policy and the outcome of the current immigration debates will affect how this segment performs over the next decade.
• Contract workers, accidental and social entrepreneurs will fuel a proliferation of personal businesses. Economic, social and technological change — and an increased interest in flexible work schedules — will produce a more independent workforce seeking a better work-life balance.
• Entrepreneurship will be a widely adopted curriculum at educational, trade and vocational institutions. As a result, artists, musicians and others not traditionally exposed to business education will learn not just their trade but small-business management skills as well.

Entrepreneurs young and old, working for themselves, a network of free agents, all receiving a business education as an integral part of their education? Sounds great to me! Now if we could just figure out how to get them all the capital they need...

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