did you know? part II

One thing that seems to be "common wisdom" about start-ups is this(at least among the young budding entrepreneurs I spend a lot of time with) : 90% of companies fail in the first year. I say, "Really? With odds like that, you still want to start a company?" Of course, failure can be defined in many ways, and one person's failure may be another's success, so it's hard to talk about what the accurate failure rates are. With that caveat, here are some survival rates, according to census data as reported by the SBA:

69% of new firms survive at least 2 years
51% survive at least 5 years

Better than common wisdom, but still somewhat bleak.

Scott Shane's book The Illusions of Entrepreneurship has a great table with more detailed survival info.

-Mina