Released: June 06, 2006

The entrepreneurial melting pot

Source: By Stacy Perman, BusinessWeek

African Americans, Asians, and Latinos are launching new businesses at rates far above the national average

U.S. entrepreneurs are often described as one of the primary drivers of the nation’s economy. For starters, small outfits create some 75% of all new jobs, represent 99.7% of all employers, and employ 50% of the private workforce, according to the Small Business Administration. However, today, the biggest driver within the small-business sector appears to be minority-owned businesses. And there is some fairly dramatic data to support this emerging trend.

According to a series of recent surveys released by the U.S. Census Bureau, between 1997 and 2002, the total number of U.S. businesses grew by 10%. However, during the same time period, Asian-owned firms increased by 24%, Hispanic-owned businesses by 31%, and African-American-owned firms spiked 45%.

According to the Census data, Asian-American-owned businesses grew at twice the national rate compared with all U.S. companies. The 1.1 million Asian-owned firms produced $326 billion in revenues in 2002, up 8% from 1997. The nearly 1.6 million Latino-owned businesses generated $222 billion in revenue in 2002, a 19% increase from 1997. Finally, the 1.2 million African-American-owned businesses earned $89 billion in 2002, a jump of 25%.

Read Full Article: The entrepreneurial melting pot