Author: Entrepreneurs who play well with others succeed
By Dave
May 7th, 2008 | Leave a comment
It pays to have a partner in a startup business, says a professor and author at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. In The Illusions of Entrepreneurship, Scott Shane, professor of entrepreneurial studies, says more than half of all startups are solo acts. One study he cites found that 63 percent of entrepreneurs found other people to be helpful to their business, compared to 74 percent of the general population.
His studies also found that many entrepreneurs make bad decisions that hurt or kill their businesses. Getting a second opinion or a sounding board might have saved some of them from themselves. He also cites evidence that partnerships have a higher success rate than solo operations.
Even so, it’s still not easy.
“People start businesses based on the myths we tell ourselves about entrepreneurship and then are hurt when confronted by reality,” he said in a news release. “Investors believe these myths and invest money and they’re disappointed when they don’t hold true. Policy makers make policy based on these myths and then wonder why the economy isn’t growing with all these entrepreneurs now in it.”
