As
Federal Reserve officials gather to issue their monthly assessment of
the world's largest economy, a new study lays bare the extent to which
many small firms are pressed for cash.
"Most small businesses are
operating on very small margins," Diana Farrell, CEO of the JPMorgan
Chase Institute, an in-house think tank that uses data from the bank to
analyze the economy. "The small business sector is less full of future
Googles and Ubers and tons and tons of very small operators living month
to month," she said in a phone interview.
The
companies in question may be small, but they represent an outsized
share of the U.S. economy. According to the Small Business and
Entrepreneurship Council, they account for roughly 50 percent of gross
domestic product and more than 50 percent of new job creation — a metric
that's closely watched by the Fed in determining whether the economy
can withstand a constriction in financing conditions. Yet even
though they're contributing a great deal to the economy there remains
ignorance about their financial health, Farrell added. On
average, the companies surveyed have just 27 days worth of cash
reserves — or money to cover expenses if inflows suddenly stopped
— according to the JPMorgan study, which analyzed 470 million
transactions by 570,000 small business last year. Restaurants typically
hold the smallest cash buffers, with just 16 days of reserves, while the
real-estate sector boasts the biggest, at 47 days.
JPMorgan Chase Institute
Small
businesses attempting to expand (or just keep their head above water)
may find it difficult to build up reserves, with daily income outpacing
expenditure by just $7, according to JPMorgan's study.
The findings come as small-business optimism appears to be stagnating in
the U.S., with the National Federation of Independent Business's (NFIB)
Small Business Optimism Index dropping 0.2 percentage points to 94.4 in
August. That's running below its 42-year average of 98.
"Political
uncertainty two months ahead of the presidential election could be
distorting small business sentiment," Carl Riccadonna, Bloomberg
Intelligence Chief Economist, wrote in a report earlier this month. "A
sharp drop in the economic outlook and hiring plans weighed on overall
business optimism, pushing the headline NFIB Small Business Optimism
Index lower in August."
Some 39
percent of small business owners cited the political climate as a
reason not to expand — an all-time high, according to the NFIB.
Uncertainty over government policy, as well as the wider economy, also
hit record highs last month. Still, the JPMorgan Institute's Farrell
suggests small businesses should focus the things they have control over
rather than taxes or regulatory changes, for instance.
"What
most small businesses should be thinking about is having a clear sense
of what their liquidity picture is," she said. "This is an immediate
thing that would impact a large swath of small businesses that they
themselves can act on."
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Concocting a
reliable “recipe for success” is about as likely as finding that one
missing sock, not filling up on appetizers before Thanksgiving dinner,
and seeing the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. (Oh, wait.)
And yet, in her new book, Raising an Entrepreneur,
Margot Machol Bisnow sought to crack the perplexing parenting code of
what makes certain children thrive and excel. Bisnow interviewed dozens
of people—and their mothers—who have found success in fields ranging
from athletics and entertainment to business and fashion. And it turns
out the founder of Under Armour, the talent manager who discovered
Justin Bieber, and a former leader in the United Nations have something
in common. Beyond the fact that Kevin Plank, Scooter Braun, and
Elizabeth McKee Gore are successful entrepreneurs, all three—and scores
of others like them—had supportive parents who believed in them.
I
talked with Bisnow about the commonalities she found in the parenting
styles of successful entrepreneurs, her own experiences as a mother, and
the ways she thinks the school system could be improved to foster the
spirit of innovation in all students. Below is a lightly edited version
of our conversation.
Hayley Glatter:
Your book really focused on the mothers of the successful entrepreneurs
and some of the paths that they took to success. In the book, you
described an entrepreneur as someone who “turns a passion into a
project.” Can you talk a little bit more about what, exactly, that
means?
Margot Machol Bisnow: I
think most people, when they think of an entrepreneur, they think of
some tech geek. And to me, it's important to expand the definition so
it's anybody who starts something. So in this book, I have people who've
started for-profit companies, and—by the way—a wide variety, not just
tech but shops or any kind of for-profit company. It's people who've
started nonprofits. It's people who've started profits for purpose,
which is what they call TOMS Shoes. It's artists, it's activists. It's
even intrapreneurs, people who started large projects within bigger
organizations.
The point of my book is that, and
it was also hugely important to me, I didn't want to just go out and
interview the people who started the 10 biggest companies in America
because, let's face it, most people are not going to end up being Mark
Zuckerberg. But I do think it's possible to start something and to turn
your passion into a project and to make a fulfilled and happy life out
of it. Maybe it'll be a billion-dollar company, and maybe you'll have
five employees. So I wanted to have a huge range, and whatever your
interest is, whether it's music, whether it's making things, whether
it's fixing things, whether it's computers, whether it's art, whether
it's helping people in other countries, whatever you want to do, I think
it's important for you to know that you can start something and you can
be your own boss.
HG:
How did you go about selecting from that huge swath of potential
stories and hone in on who you wanted to talk to for the book?
MB:
My goal was to have a very diverse group. I wanted half men and half
women. I wanted it completely diverse in that sense, but I also wanted
half men, half women, every race, every ethnicity, every family
background, every family income—from single moms barely making it to
upper-middle class where they could lend their kids $10,000 to get
started.
HG: And what sorts of commonalities did you find? MB:
I ended up with 10 rules, and I have five to eight stories illustrating
each rule. I would say all of the 60 entrepreneurs pretty much followed
seven, eight, nine of the rules. In addition, there was one rule that
every single person I talked to followed, and it's the overarching theme
of the book. Every person that I talked to had a parent, usually a mom,
who believed in them. And you'll say, “Well, every parent believes in
their child.” But, no, and this is so important to me, I think every
parent loves their child, I think every parent wants their child to be
happy and successful, but I think most parents believe if their child
follows their heart, then they can't make a living.
And
I think many parents are saying to themselves, “When I grew up in the
‘70s and ‘80s, there was a path that worked.” You had to study every one
of your subjects in high school and get good grades in every class. You
had to have a broad group of outside interests and join lots of clubs.
And you had to have an SAT tutor and do well on your SATs. You had to
get into a good college. And you had to get good grades in every single
one of your classes in college, and you had to graduate from college.
And probably you had to go on to a graduate school, and then you had to
get into a really great company.
And
that works for some kids, but it just doesn't work for others. And I
want to tell all the parents who have kids that that doesn't work for
that it's ok, that there's another route, and that they can trust their
child and let their child pursue their passion and they'll be fine.
HG: What do you think sets this parenting style apart from a lot of the other things that we've seen in the past?
MB:
I think it's harder because you actually have to listen to your child.
Instead of being this tiger mom that decided in advance what your child
has to do and forcing it on them, or a helicopter parent who hovers and
insists that their child do the things that they think are necessary,
this requires listening to your child. It requires watching your child,
seeing what your child's strengths are and what makes your child happy,
and then supporting that and trusting the process. It requires trusting
your child and backing off a bit and letting them pursue that passion
even if it's something you know nothing about.
HG:
You mention in the book that you have experience fostering this
entrepreneurial spirit in your own sons. Can you talk about that?
MB:
I say at the end of the book that there's a lot of things I know now
that I didn't know at the time. I certainly wasn't trying to foster
entrepreneurial kids—I barely knew what an entrepreneur was. But I did
respect my children's passions. Both of our kids had passions in areas
that my husband and I knew nothing about. I say in the book that if
either of our kids had been remotely interested in law ... or any of the
things that we're knowledgeable about, we would have just been all over
them with advice and suggestions. So I think it turned out to be really
serendipitous that both our kids developed passions in areas we
actually knew nothing about.
Our
oldest son, Elliott, was a tennis player. That's basically all he did
for 10 years. We would go to these tournaments with the top 100 kids in
the country and we would be the only parents there who didn't play
tennis and barely knew the rules. And this is just something he wanted
to do and he insisted on and we supported him. The consequence was that
he had to figure out what racket to get, he had to figure out what coach
to train with, he had to figure out what tournaments to enter. He just
had to figure out all this stuff and he had to be in charge of it, and
even though he does nothing with tennis anymore, the qualities that he
developed held him in good stead.
Then our
younger son was passionate about music, and in particular about writing
music. And again, we knew nothing about music, we don't play
instruments. And he had to figure out what instruments to study, what
teachers to study with. He put out a CD when he was in high school. He
had to figure out who to do it with and how to do it and make all sorts
of decisions about things I don't even understand and what kind of music
software to buy and all that kind of stuff. It just worked out really
well that our kids had passions in areas where we couldn't help them.
HG:
You talked a little bit about how your older son said that he didn't
really love school and that it wasn't something that got him excited as a
kid, and you do hone in on the topic of education in your book. So were
there any patterns that emerged among the entrepreneurs that you spoke
to—as well as their parents—in terms of their school experiences?
MB:
No. I would say one of the things I love is that there are not patterns
in general. Everybody's unique and the point of the book is you can't
say, “Oh, that's how that person did it, so that's how I'm going to make
my kid do it.” You have to listen to your kids, you have to watch your
kids.
There were entrepreneurs who I talked to
and their moms who were just academic superstars. I would say a third of
these kids breezed through school. It was easy for them, they were
great students, but not all of them.
So
the point is, if you have a kid who's a great student, who loves
school, who's doing well, who's happy, who's thriving, that's fantastic.
That's great. But what if you don't? What if you have a kid who's
unhappy, who has a different learning style, who doesn't fit into that
school. Then you have to work around that. You kind of have to figure
out what your kid needs, and you have to be there for them and support
them.
HG: In the book itself,
you wrote that schools “reward behavior that is diametrically opposed”
to entrepreneurial success. Can you elaborate on that and what
structures of today's school system you are referring to with that
statement?
MB: I think, of
course not every school and of course not every teacher, but I think
there are certainly the inclinations among many schools to reward kids
for regurgitating information they've been given in certain ways. That
works for a lot of kids, and it doesn't work for other kids.
Entrepreneurs are often people who challenge the status quo, who look at
things differently, who look outside the box.
One
of the kids is Benny Blanco, who's become one of the country's top
songwriters and has written over 15 number-one songs. His mom said when
he was in kindergarten, the teacher used to call her every week and say,
“Benny won't sit in the circle.” And she used to say, “So?” Which I
thought was amazing, because I would have sort of freaked out.
Some
of the parents found ways around it. Adam Braun's mom got a call from
his teacher who said, “Adam can't sit still,” and she said, “Can you
have him sit in the last row of the class and then if he has to stand
up, then it won't bother people?” And then the teacher said, “Oh, yeah, I
guess we can do that.”
I think there are schools, especially charter schools, who are now trying to work with kids to be more creative.
HG:
What do you think, based on your interviews, schools should be doing to
encourage kids to become entrepreneurs and be more creative?
MB:
Let me make it clear that I am not an educator. I don't want to
dictate. But I look at places like the Blue School that was started by
the Blue Man Group out of New York City, and everything they do is to
spark creativity. And everything they do is to encourage children to
explore and discover and create. My kids went to pretty traditional
schools, but I've talked to people who've had their kids in charter
schools where everything is much more creative, and I think it depends
on the child. Some kids thrive with structure and some kids thrive when
they can have an opportunity to be more creative. I think the job of a
parent is to make sure your kid is in a school that works for them.
The
other thing, and it comes back to what we were talking about, suppose
you have a child that's really good in something and not so good in
other things. If you say to that child, “If you don't get A’s in all
your subjects, you'll be a disappointment,” you're sending one lesson to
that child. If what you say to the child is, “I'm so incredibly proud
of you for the beautiful song you wrote. Maybe you should try to work a
little harder on some of your other subjects, but what you did is
fantastic, and we're so proud of you for all the effort you put into the
thing you love,” you're communicating something different.
One
of the parents said to me, "In a company, we don't say to people,
'You're so good at accounting, we think we're going to put you in human
resources,' but in a sense, this is what we do to our kids." We say,
"You're so good at computers, stop spending so much time at computers
and start spending more time studying your history." I think it's
important for parents to praise their kids for what they have done as
opposed to being upset with them if they've tried their best and they're
just not very good in some areas.
HG: Is there anything else you wanted to add that we didn't get to?
MB: Well, the only other thing that I would say is, I was so struck by the December Atlanticcover story
on the Silicon Valley suicides. It's really one of the most powerful
stories I've ever read, and it's a story about how all these high-school
kids in Silicon Valley are walking in front of trains. And they
interviewed people in these classes, and [a large number of the
students] said they had serious suicidal thoughts. And they interviewed
people who said these kids believe there is but one path to a successful
life, and that path is very narrow. What I hope the book does is shout
that there's another approach to life. I want parents to lighten up and
realize there isn't just one path to a successful life and not pile so
much pressure onto their kids to perform in areas that maybe aren’t
their natural talent and praise them for their efforts in the things
their children love and are good at.
