Michigan Entrepreneurship Score Card

2023 Entrepreneurship Score Card

Key Takeaways

Over the past two decades, Michigan has seen extended periods of decline, stagnation, recovery, and growth. Despite the inherent risks associated with starting a small business, indicators show business starts have hit record highs. Here’s what this edition shows:

Small business is big in Michigan, and getting bigger
More small businesses are thriving
Small businesses are seeing increased revenues and opens
The labor force crunch is real and will not improve soon
Recessionary risk looms, but the outlook is still positive
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2022 Entrepreneurship Score Card

Key Takeaways

The economic conditions identified in this year’s scorecard include:

Michigan economy holding up well in 2021-2022: Top category for three-month economic improvement in 7 of the last 9 months
Michigan small businesses have been outperforming the U.S. since 2020 (measured in percent growth in businesses open and in business revenue)
Spending and consumption have remained strong, along with exceptionally strong state sales tax collections
New business starts have been notably robust since the second half of 2020 and the 5-year establishment survival rate of small businesses has begun to inch up.

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2021 Entrepreneurship Score Card: Fall Edition

Key Takeaways

The topline economic recovery is solid, however small businesses are not experiencing the same rate of recovery. Many industries dominated by smaller businesses are far from pre-pandemic level.
Michigan is still experiencing more small business closures and revenue loss compared to other states. Personal consumption expenditures on services, dominated by small business, remain below pre-pandemic levels.
Federal spending made a huge difference in the beginning of the recovery, but now poses real, long-term challenges.
History predicts we are entering a period where we could see fast growth in our entrepreneurial economy, but small businesses are facing inflation, workforce shortages, and supply chain challenges that are limiting recovery opportunities.

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2021 Entrepreneurship Score Card: Spring Edition

With years of annual Score Card experience SBAM has become familiar with the peaks and valleys of the Michigan economy, but none have been quite so disruptive as the valley we find ourselves in during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To best understand this impact, it was decided to produce a variant Score Card for 2021. But to do so we needed to better understand what might lie ahead for the second stage companies as well as what we can learn from past major economic recoveries. For the purposes of this discussion “second stage” companies refer to businesses that are beyond the start-up phase, but still small by employment and revenue standards.

This is the spring edition of the Score Card where we look at Michigan’s economy in the shape of recovery, how Michigan compares to all states and business trends.

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