Get Your Facts Straight WSJ Startup Journal
March 17, 2006
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Via Business Opportunities Blog: In a generally good story, Kelly Spors makes a error in her material facts. The error in material facts is when she states:
“Other studies have shown that as many as nine out of 10 start-ups don’t last beyond five years.”
This statement is a complete myth and cannot be supported with any research. I would challenge Kelly Spors reveal her source of the ‘other studies’ that support her unsupported factoid. It is a disservice to the small business community to recycle unfounded myths.
Better News: The article is not entirely inaccurate. When I researched business failure statistics for my book Tips and Traps When Buying a Business, I then published 13 Stupid Tricks of Business Owners. The one statistic that she used and whose source she cites, comes from the SBA:
“Only 44% of start-ups survive four years, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.”
I have been able to confirm that the SBA stats to be very close to those published by Dun & Bradstreet. So with two sources, that information should be fairly reliable.
We should be able to expect more from the WSJ and Startup Journal, shouldn’t we?
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[...] false. In fact it is an urban myth. In fact, I have taken on the Wall Street Journal in “Get Your Facts Straight WSJ Startup Journal” and in “Its Time to Stop Surviving and Focus on [...]
[...] 4 years of existence (Greg Balanko-Dickson does a great job of clarifying this confusing statistic Here. Obviously completely reinventing your business is pretty unlikely, but it’s not a stretch to [...]
[...] from the SPJ web site. I know from experience that many bloggers, business gurus, and even the WSJ have their facts wrong relating to the facts on the rate of business failures. Whenever I get the [...]