USA Today, reports America is surprisingly falling behind the rest of the world in Entrepreneurship. Boston-born Hector Montalvo, MD at Source Marketing Direct travelled to Philadelphia last week and claims ‘American Entrepreneurship is set to rise’.
In the past, American wealth has been largely represented with successful entrepreneurial roots. However, Only 21% of US millionaires cited business sale or profit as their source of wealth, according to USA today. In 2012, figures saw a vast decrease in new businesses per month which stood at 514,000, down from 543,000 in the previous year.
Source Marketing Direct’s MD, Hector Montalvo, recently won a British Entrepreneurship award; the prize – a trip to New York and Philadelphia where he attended a Sales Conference which gave him the opportunity to network with American SME’s and start-up entrepreneurs. Hector Montalvo, who was born in the USA but currently lives in Britain, has hope in America’s entrepreneurial spirit. “America is one of the greatest nations in the world and having grown up in Boston and understanding the culture I have no doubt these statistics will rise.”
In Britain SME’s contribute greatly to the UK economy, as 99.9% of them make up the total number of businesses in the UK. British SME’s help generate the country 48.7% of total public sector turnover as well as provide 59.1% of all private sector jobs (startupdonut.co.uk). These figures show SME’s are positively contributing to the UK’s economy, so why is America falling behind? It’s not like America isn’t supporting US entrepreneurship. The Kauffman Foundation spends about $90 million a year, from assets of around $2.1 billion, to make a strong case for entrepreneurialism. The Kauffman Foundation supports academic research, offers training for would-be entrepreneurs, and are leading sponsors for ‘Global Entrepreneurship Week’, which involved 75 countries last year. Over the next five years, Goldman Sachs is said to spend $100 million on promoting entrepreneurship among women in the developing world, particularly through management education.
With positive US schemes in the pipeline to support entrepreneurship, it’s hopeful that Hector Montalvo’s predictions of America’s entrepreneurship figures rising could be seen come true in the near future. He adds, “After witnessing the emphasis Britain has put on SME’s contributions to the UK economy I am really pleased to see some of the support now being offered in the US economy to American entrepreneurs and start-up ventures.”
Source Marketing Direct are an outsourced sales and marketing firm based in London who focus on direct, face-to-face sales through event based solicitations.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/06/23/fall-behind-rich-entrepreneurs/2434717/