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I've got ghetto kids whose parents have started successful busineses, I've got older divorcees who have started businesses.
Name them (not actual names or states, just the type of biz). How many? How long have these "businesses" been in existence? What is your metric for "success"?

...two or three of my older STUDENTS have done...
What do you teach? Business? Marketing? How much has your "teaching" been involved in the success of these vetnures?

Anyone can come on here and spew bs - how about some facts? Otherwise you're just another LoSer.

OK. First, I have a woman and her husband who started a drug rehab/counseling business with no capital. One of my standard questions is, "How long before your business is profitable?" In their case, less than a year.

In fact, I teach 30-60 students a year at the U. of Dayton, mostly jr.s and sr.s Their first project is to do a family business history---to find someone in their family who has or has had a business. Surprisingly, in about three years of doing this (+ or - 100 students), I have only had 2-3 who did not have a family member who owned his own business or who had owned one (usually grandparents in the latter case).

What surprised me, knowing the statistics as I do about companies not being profitable for at least two years, is that recently, I'd say 80-90% of the firms were profitable in a year or less. Some have really boomed. Grunder Landscaping, for example: Marty Grunder was a student who came back to UD as a very young man, having started his own landscaping company in HIGH SCHOOL, and today has a multi-million-dollar company with 40 full-time employees.

Interestingly, though, at least FOUR other students have parents or uncles who have started competitors to Grunder, including Buckeye Ecocare, a booming landscaping company.

Most of the family businesses (I'd say 30%) are restaurants/catering/carry-out. These, on average, aren't as big as some of the others, but I didn't detect from my questions to students any unhappiness on the part of their family members.

Another 20% or so are computer-related home businesses that either do on-site work, at-home consulting (I've had several home-based computer sales, everything from labels to gadgets), and general diagnostic. The balance of the firms are insurance, tax preparation, small manufacturing (aluminum siding, special parts, even some heavy machinery).

I don't claim my "teaching" has had one IOTA worth of impact on these firms, because they were in existence when I got the kids. My point was to have the kids see how much entrepreneurship is out there, and how many self-made men and women there are.

Now take off your freaking nasty hat.