"80% of new businesses fail": Jack Kemp + four others?

AHC: Jack Kemp is more successful at one of his signature issues of entrepreneurship.

And he gets four other big-name legislators on the bandwagon with him. Let's say two of each party, so with Jack himself being Republican, the line-up is 3 Republicans, 2 Democrats.

And this is just the main nucleus. They are successful at getting co-sponsors and pushing through legislation.

"80% of new businesses fail." Yes, 8 out of 10. That's the baseline statistic I've heard most often. Let's say Jack thinks he's being irresponsible if he doesn't tell people this.

Alright, give me a guardedly optimistic scenario in which this is both a political and policy successes. And please feel free to take a flight of fancy or two.
 
As someone who has been involved in managing small businesses for over 25 years my take is 60 or 70 % fail because of bad business plans. Another 10% fail because of the the health of the owners fails. The owner/entrepreneur gets cancer, has a cardiac, or becomes depressed over the mass of detail that eats up their life. Or maybe a spouse, child or aging parent becomes sick. I don't know much about Keeps plan. How exactly would it have dealt with the problem of unrealistic plans & disasters like the owner/factoum in a auto accident or worse.
 
although new businesses account for 5% of employees, they account for 20% of new employment growth. There's a lot great stories of big successes like Apple and Starbucks. I dont think its too hard to appeal to hope and optimism.
 
As someone who has been involved in managing small businesses for over 25 years my take is 60 or 70 % fail because of bad business plans. Another 10% fail because of the the health of the owners fails. The owner/entrepreneur gets cancer, has a cardiac, or becomes depressed over the mass of detail that eats up their life. Or maybe a spouse, child or aging parent becomes sick.
This sounds like it's a very realistic description at times.

Kemp is perhaps best well-known for his advocacy of 'enterprise zones.' This is the idea that certain areas in poor communities, often minority communities, would be designated enterprise zones, where new or maybe existing companies in those areas would pay lower taxes and/or be able to tap into certain subsidies.

I'd still ask this question, are we stripping off the crummy regulations keeping the good ones, or are we rather taking a complex system and overlaying one more layer of complexity?
 
although new businesses account for 5% of employees, they account for 20% of new employment growth. There's a lot great stories of big successes like Apple and Starbucks. I dont think its too hard to appeal to hope and optimism.
Entrepreneurship is almost something like apple pie and the Fourth of July. It's something easy to promote in a feel good way.

Which is why I think if Kemp and his fellow legislators had added the realistic element, that may have make a big difference.

In addition, maybe if they had been realistic in the 1980s of what percent of lost manufacturing jobs could be replaced by a big promotion of entrepreneurship, and I'd say 10% would be realistically optimistic.

And then you'd have to make the point, look, talking about the loss of auto jobs in particular, other manufacturing jobs, and good-paying, middle-class jobs in general, no one thing is going to take the place of these lost jobs. It's a matter of a number of small and medium things which together can replace these lost jobs.

Ever since the '70s, the American middle class has declined. This slowed or may have even stopped during the Clinton years, but it did not reverse. And this is something which may have made a difference.
 
I've thought about a service-oriented business I can run out of my car or home.

For example, if someone already had a truck and tools, they could advertise a Mobile Auto Repair Service (MARS) in their immediate area. Maybe focus on a particular set of repairs, say between 6am and 10. And work their regular job later.

If it really takes off, then they have some decisions to make.
 
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