The Kauffman Foundation recently introduced four indicators to better track early stage entrepreneurship at the national, state, and metropolitan levels. They are:
- Rate of new entrepreneurs: The broadest measure possible for business creation by population;
- Opportunity share of new entrepreneurs: The percentage of new entrepreneurs who created a business out of choice instead of necessity;
- Start-up early job creation: The number of jobs created in the first year of business; and
- Start-up early survival rate: The rate of survival in the first year of business.
How does the Volunteer State rank? We’re below average in two categories – the rate of new entrepreneurs and the number of jobs created in the first year of a new venture – and above average in two – those who started a business by choice (slightly above) and survival rate after one year (in the top quartile). Click here to see the Kauffman data.