OUR PROCESS


John Mattioli says being an entrepreneur has far exceeded his expectations.


Archives


Categories

BIRMINGHAM ENTREPRENEURS

We thought that our customers would enjoy reading this article from the Birmingham Business Journal.

Alabama scores fourth worst for entrepreneurial activity

                                                                Premium content from                                                                            Birmingham Business Journal                                                                        by Lauren B. Cooper, Staff

Date: Sunday, June 6, 2010, 11:00pm CDT – Last Modified: Friday, June 4, 2010, 1:30am CDT

John Mattioli became an entrepreneur four years ago when his longtime employer was acquired. ‘You have to be 100 percent committed ... and well-capitalized,’ says the owner of Vestavia’s Dry Clean City.

John Mattioli became an entrepreneur four years ago when his longtime employer was acquired. ‘You have to be 100 percent committed … and well-capitalized,’ says the owner of Vestavia’s Dry Clean City.

 

John Mattioli says being an entrepreneur has far exceeded his expectations.

The owner of Dry Clean City in Vestavia Hills made that choice four years ago when department store Belk bought Parisian and he was faced with the decision to continue a 25-year career in retail or strike out on his own.

While a lot has changed since then for the now self-employed Mattioli, very little has moved the entrepreneurial Richter scale for Alabama. A recent Kauffman Foundation report showed the state had the fourth lowest entrepreneurial activity in the country last year, despite both national and southern activity reaching a 14-year high during a crippling recession.

According to the report, Alabama had 210 entrepreneurs created last year for every 100,000 people. That’s well below the 340 entrepreneurs created per 100,000 people nationally and dangerously close to the 170 per 100,000 people in Mississippi, the nation’s lowest.

A low grade on the report indicates a slow-growing economy, said Robert W. Fairlie, author of the report and director of the master’s program in applied economics and finance at University of California, Santa Cruz.

“One of the biggest areas is construction and if activity is high in construction then there’s a higher entrepreneurial rate,” he said. “Alabama has been low for the last three years, so it’s not an anomoly for 2009. The three-year average is more accurate.”

The report showed that, between 2007 and 2009, Alabama had the second lowest entrepreneurial activity rate in the country.

Alabama offers few externals that would be attractive for entrepreneurs, including growth opportunities, progressive policies and strides toward inclusiveness for minority and immigrant businesses, said Stephen Craft, dean of the business school at Birmingham-Southern College.