Growing Entrepreneurs To Grow The Economy
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
What do you want to be when you grow up? The answer to that question not only involves a series of planned educational and skill developmental activities – it also matters a great deal to our economy.
Whether we’re looking at local communities, statewide ramifications and on a national basis -- instilling a stronger foundation for private sector success and appreciation would be a worthwhile pursuit.
When the discussions of Nevada business diversification was contemplated with the Nevada Vision Stakeholders Group, wanting to have more entrepreneurs consider setting up shop in the Silver State was determined as being a desirable objective...even though the actual game plan for making it happen wasn’t given much focus. Reading this blog piece by a colleague, who works with the American Farm Bureau Federation and concentrates on rural development activities, we can see that in some parts of the country there is a great deal of specific planning and action oriented to encouraging entrepreneurship. Along with the idea of attracting businesses to locate in their communities they have also given their attention to an emphasis on growing their own crop of future entrepreneurs.
It would be a good idea and a winning strategy for Nevada to carry out as well. Not only would such a development program hold the prospect of actually getting to a place where our state’s economic base was more diverse, it would also establish a stronger cultural understanding that hard work, risk taking, profit motivation and other pro-business attributes are not bad things.
Especially noteworthy in the piece, was the significance of the contributions provided by small businesses – normally equated with individuals who are entrepreneurs:
Small businesses pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll, generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years, created more than half of the nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP), hire 40 percent of high-tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers), are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises, and produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms.
In heralding the positive aspects and attributes of small business entrepreneurs we need to make certain that we have the understanding that “small” isn’t considered in the context of political correctness -- that place where “small” is perceived as being somehow more morally superior to “big”. The true nature of comprehending the importance of small business, entrepreneurs is the appreciation that people wanting to work for themselves is a foundational value of our private enterprise system. Through direct experience in making a business work…coming to understand the essential requirement of serving a customer’s needs/wants (and being profitable in the process)…there is a much more meaningful perception of what makes our economy operate.
Having more people who are nurtured, trained and become driven to embrace this frame of mind will provide the capability of our economy (local, state and nationally) to be successful. Providing the proper and limited governmental structure will also be a big determinant in whether we have a workable system or what we seem to be getting deeper into, taking the government-centric course that we’re on.
What do you want to be when you grow up? The answer to that question not only involves a series of planned educational and skill developmental activities – it also matters a great deal to our economy.
Whether we’re looking at local communities, statewide ramifications and on a national basis -- instilling a stronger foundation for private sector success and appreciation would be a worthwhile pursuit.
When the discussions of Nevada business diversification was contemplated with the Nevada Vision Stakeholders Group, wanting to have more entrepreneurs consider setting up shop in the Silver State was determined as being a desirable objective...even though the actual game plan for making it happen wasn’t given much focus. Reading this blog piece by a colleague, who works with the American Farm Bureau Federation and concentrates on rural development activities, we can see that in some parts of the country there is a great deal of specific planning and action oriented to encouraging entrepreneurship. Along with the idea of attracting businesses to locate in their communities they have also given their attention to an emphasis on growing their own crop of future entrepreneurs.
It would be a good idea and a winning strategy for Nevada to carry out as well. Not only would such a development program hold the prospect of actually getting to a place where our state’s economic base was more diverse, it would also establish a stronger cultural understanding that hard work, risk taking, profit motivation and other pro-business attributes are not bad things.
Especially noteworthy in the piece, was the significance of the contributions provided by small businesses – normally equated with individuals who are entrepreneurs:
Small businesses pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll, generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years, created more than half of the nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP), hire 40 percent of high-tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers), are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises, and produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms.
In heralding the positive aspects and attributes of small business entrepreneurs we need to make certain that we have the understanding that “small” isn’t considered in the context of political correctness -- that place where “small” is perceived as being somehow more morally superior to “big”. The true nature of comprehending the importance of small business, entrepreneurs is the appreciation that people wanting to work for themselves is a foundational value of our private enterprise system. Through direct experience in making a business work…coming to understand the essential requirement of serving a customer’s needs/wants (and being profitable in the process)…there is a much more meaningful perception of what makes our economy operate.
Having more people who are nurtured, trained and become driven to embrace this frame of mind will provide the capability of our economy (local, state and nationally) to be successful. Providing the proper and limited governmental structure will also be a big determinant in whether we have a workable system or what we seem to be getting deeper into, taking the government-centric course that we’re on.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 6/30/2010 4:41 AM 
Categories: Economy
Tags: Business Development Nevada Nevada Vision Stakeholders Training
Categories: Economy
Tags: Business Development Nevada Nevada Vision Stakeholders Training
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