Small Businesses Find Fertile Ground
More than 95 percent of the businesses in Tallahassee have 100 employees or less, but that is only half the story. More than two-thirds of all new jobs in 2007 (and just about every other year) were created in such small businesses.
What will happen to those businesses in 2008?
Experts agree that the answer to that question lies in customer attitudes, since interest rates and funds availability are favorable to business creation. But, according to Jerry Osteryoung, director of the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship at Florida State University, it is hard to incubate new businesses when people are nervous about the economy.
Over the years Tallahassee has been an excellent place to successfully start a small business. Some local startups have grown very large. Consider Mainline Information Systems and its founder, Rick Kearney. What started as a niche information-technology business is now a prime contractor with giant IBM Corp., and its work has earned its founder recognition as Florida's 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year.
Another example is offered by former state contractor Datamaxx Applied Technologies, now a leading provider of communication services. Its clients include the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and New York City Fire Department.
For sheer growth, a prime example is eLayaway, an online, pay-as-you-go service that takes its central idea from "layaway" services offered by retailers a generation ago. Instead of incurring credit-card debt for online purchases, eLayaway customers establish a pay plan and complete payment before their purchase ships.
The 2006 startup experienced year-over-year growth of more than 5000 percent in 2007 and earned recognition as Florida's small business of the year. And all of it happened from two guys with an idea and an Internet connection.
Even though small business is disproportionately sensitive to economic downturn, even here the outlook for Tallahassee businesses remains rosier than in most communities, according to Tallahassee/Leon County Economic Council Executive Director Beth Kirkland.
"There is a lot happening here for small businesses," she said recently. "Opportunity is definitely out there."
The largest sector of the economy for small businesses remains in personal services, a class broadened by the increasing dependence of larger companies on independent contractors. More than 55 percent of small businesses fall into this category.
Next in line are such skilled trades as construction, plumbing and carpentry. And about a third of small businesses offer professional services, such as legal, medical or financial.
Is 2008 a good time to start your own business?
Could be, said Osteryoung and Kirkland. What it takes is careful consideration, a little study of market readiness for your product or service, a business plan and, of course, courage.
