VOICES: Americans have much to celebrate on National Entrepreneurs’ Day

Total entrepreneurial activity is rising the fastest among young people ages 18 to 24, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2023-2024 United States Report. For the second year in a row, younger people are starting businesses at higher rates than older people. (That should come as no surprise since younger generations seem less inhibited than older generations; they’ve been told all their lives that they can do anything, which means they’re often more willing to take risks - an essential trait for entrepreneurship.)

While challenges for entrepreneurs remain - access to capital, inflation, high interest rates, labor shortages, wage increases and technological integrations - the current boom in entrepreneurship may reverse the downward trend that has worried economists and policymakers for decades. From 1980 to 2011, based on the number of new firms created, entrepreneurship declined by about 50%, according to census data. After the Great Recession, business-formation rates grew more slowly. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, causing an initial drop in entrepreneurship.

Our entrepreneurial ecosystems are robust

Today, the role of small businesses in America is growing again - a positive development for all Americans since small businesses are the bedrock of our economy.

In our region at the undergraduate level, both the University of Dayton and Wright State University offer entrepreneurship majors; Miami University offers an entrepreneurship co-major; Cedarville University offers an entrepreneurship minor; and Central State University offers an entrepreneurship concentration. Plus, three of the nation’s top seven undergraduate entrepreneurship programs are in states adjacent to Ohio - at the University of Michigan, Indiana University at Bloomington and the University of Pennsylvania - according to U.S. News & World Report.

Locally, we’ve seen the growth of new and existing programs that support and encourage entrepreneurs such as the Entrepreneurs’ Center, Launch Dayton, the Dayton Area Chamber’s Minority Business Partnership, the Greater West Dayton Incubator and the Entrepreneurship Center of the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio, among others.

Entrepreneurship: ‘the ultimate challenge’

Supporting and encouraging entrepreneurs is what we do every day at Winsupply: a family of companies that includes more than 650 Win-branded and regional wholesalers across the United States; service companies for business support and sourcing; and Winsupply Inc.

In business for one reason - to build entrepreneurs - Winsupply Inc. owns a majority equity stake in these independent, locally owned and operated wholesalers known as Winsupply local companies, which serve the construction industry.

In the past three years alone, Winsupply has helped 250 new entrepreneurs nationwide own and operate their own Winsupply local company. One of those new entrepreneurs is Brad Williams at Dayton Windustrial, on East Helena Street, who became the local owner after Greg Jackson, at the helm since 1993, said he intended to retire.

Williams, who started as a truck driver there after graduating from Centerville High School in 2005, worked his way up, deciding after three years that he wanted to be an entrepreneur someday.

Last year, as an outside salesperson on commission at Dayton Windustrial, Williams said he was “making good money but needed a new challenge - and being an entrepreneur is the ultimate challenge.”

So this year - after a pep talk from his wife, Lauren, who told him, “You can do this!” - Williams said OK to a pay cut, took out a second mortgage on their home to buy stock in Dayton Windustrial and became president in February.

“We literally bet the farm to buy this business,” he said. “Both of us are all in.”

In addition, Lauren Williams moved from full-time to part-time work to give her husband flexibility to go in early, stay late and attend weekend events with customers.

“I took the risk because I had confidence in myself,” Brad Williams said, “and because I had this massive support system behind me, both inside and outside Winsupply. That’s what drove me to say, ‘Yes: I can do this. I can be an entrepreneur.”’

Besides his wife and Greg Jackson, his mentor, Williams said his support system includes hundreds of people:

Jackson said this year, sales and margin at Dayton Windustrial are at unprecedented highs “because Brad’s not afraid to take the bull by the horns and make decisions. He’s

forward-thinking: always listening, always looking for opportunities. And he’s mentoring new people on his team right away. He’s garnered their support - so they’re supporting him.”

Entrepreneurs can’t go it alone

Small businesses in America benefit each of us - and society at large. They fuel innovation, product diversity, job creation, healthy competition, customer satisfaction, wealth creation, economic growth and prosperity, and vitality in our communities and in America.

That’s why I believe all of us, as Americans, have a collective responsibility to support entrepreneurs and help them succeed. It’s a serious responsibility we need to embrace and then act on. Here’s what that support looks like - and some steps we can take:

Let’s do our part to tell small businesses - in words and deeds - that we’ve got their back.

Rick Schwartz is chairman of the board, Winsupply Inc.