Here's our tally of the diverse ways the culture, the economy, and entrepreneurship's own history are combining to make this a great time--the best time, in fact--to be building a business.
Number 1
Because things are changing, still and again. But now the changes are incremental and diverse, not overnight and obvious. Start adding the changes up and themes emerge. You start getting persuaded that, yeah, being an entrepreneur right now is different--is better.
Number 2
Because the stupidity is over. No one talks about "flipping" companies anymore. No one throws too much money at you just because you put "Web," "eyeballs," and "monetize" in the same sentence. No one expects a miracle. So the real miracle--building a real business--gets respect.
Number 3
Because you can be a soloist and an entrepreneur at once.
Number 4
Because you can grow but don't have to.
Number 5
Jim Collins's website (www.jimcollins.com).
Number 6
Better coffee. Easier to find. Now available in every American hamlet (thanks to Starbucks and its spawn) in time for that next all nighter you swore you wouldn't pull.
Number 7
Because it's the quickest path to owning a major league sports team. Witness Mark Cuban's Dallas Mavericks, Paul Allen's Portland Trailblazers, Dan Gilbert's Cleveland Cavaliers, Mike Ilitch's Detroit Tigers, Tom Golisano's Buffalo Sabres, John Henry's Boston Red Sox, and more.
Number 8
Jay-Z. Recently, hip-hop entrepreneur Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, platinum rap artist and creator variously of a fashion brand (Rocawear), record label (Roc-A-Fella), film company, nightclub, and sneaker line, announced his retirement from recording in order to devote full energy to his businesses. The retirement won't last, but still. "Hip-hop entrepreneur" is the point, and a lot of young people are getting it.
Number 9
Because English is, more than ever, the language of international business. There are more Chinese learning English than Americans speaking it.
Number 10
The Kauffman Foundation (www.kauffman.org).
Number 11
Because we're not rookies anymore. In 25 years of entrepreneurial expansion there have been experiments tried, experiences learned from, discoveries made, and notes taken. Launch a business today and you get shoulders to stand on--you don't have to make it all up from scratch.
Number 12
...Unless, of course, you want to.
Number 13
Because mothers, finally, are allowed. Their many stories can be distilled to a composite voice:
"You don't have to make excuses anymore--and trust me, I've made excuses. About why I had to reschedule a client meeting or not stay for that extra beer or was on a noisy cell phone in what was obviously not an office. Before, I felt like I constantly had to hide my kids--from my employees and investors and, God knows, my customers. But something changed. Including me and what I'm willing to fake. All I know is that lately no one cares anymore if my schedule's unusual or I actually have a family occasionally on my mind. Even clients. They bring it up. They want to work around it. Maybe it's just that more and more of them are trying to work around it themselves--men and women both.
Or I sometimes think that people just got tired of the faking, the pretense of all that 24-7 über warrior sleep-in-the-office crap we all went through. Now we know it's not about style, it's about work. Clients want us for our work. They have no problem with the fact that I actually go home at night. You think that's a small thing? It's not."
Number 14
Herman Miller's Aeron chair.
Number 15
Because you can build a team, your team, at a time when creating communities that nurture and sustain us may be more important than ever before.
Number 16
Because we're not rookies anymore. In 25 years of entrepreneurial expansion we've learned that a family business can thrive while the family survives. There are recipes. You can Google them.
Number 17
Moore's Law--despite anyone who says it no longer applies. We guarantee that tomorrow the computer your company needs will again be faster, better, and cheaper than it is today.
Number 18
Peer groups. More of them. Less formal. Simpler to start (not least because there are simply more peers). The counsel, empathy, and bracing inspiration of veteran fellow travelers can be as close as you decide to arrange it. (Shall we say the local diner, second Tuesday every month?)
Number 19
Because not just your business problems but our social problems, too, are being attacked more and more frequently with entrepreneurship.
Number 20
Because we're not rookies anymore. In 25 years of entrepreneurial expansion we've learned that couples can be partners. There are ways. A whole literature has grown up to help couples circumnavigate the traumas so many early entrepreneurial pairs suffered and thus shape a life that makes real a common and large-hearted dream.
Number 21
Because corporate America's burden of satisfying shortest-term financial performance expectations has never been more crippling.
Number 22
Because even the biggest of the big are copying you. (Watch GE's Jeffrey Immelt trying to turn Jack Welch's cost-efficiency battleship toward risk-taking, market responsiveness, and innovation.) And imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Number 23
Because big companies still keep Dilbert in fresh material.
Number 24
Because big companies now ask you a completely different set of questions. Just in the last six or nine months we've been flooded--a fire hose of opportunity. We do virtual concierge services and virtual call centers, so it makes sense we'd see a spike from clients who are focusing more and more on customer retention, customer loyalty programs, capturing more dollars per customer. The spike is partly just dollars loosening up, but it's more than that. When my board asked me, 'Where's this coming from?' I began to register how differently our prospective clients--all big companies--were approaching us. It used to be: 'Are you stable? How little are you? Are you real?' Now that's gone. No one cares. Instead we see in prospects this greater willingness to turn to small companies for innovative ways to address their business processes. They're fascinated, you can feel it in them personally. You'll be on a sales call and they'll be asking, 'What are you doing?' 'What's new?'
