When Glenna Taylor of Indianapolis launched her personal care agency, Faith Filled Hands, in 2017, it was the fulfillment of a longtime dream.
“I’ve always had the thought, ‘Why work for someone else and make them millions, when I can work for myself and make millions?’” Taylor said.
She had worked as a medical assistant for three years, then as a certified nursing assistant for 14 years, before taking the step of opening her own business. The company, which offers clients at-home assistance with needs like cooking, housework and personal care, has 20 employees (down from 32 pre-pandemic).
Taylor also has bigger ambitions—she’s working to open a continuum-of-care facility that would offer both assisted-living and nursing care for residents and hopes to start construction on that project within two years.
Indiana has a shortage of entrepreneurs like Taylor—and that fact has larger implications for Indiana’s economy, according to a new report from the public-policy think tank Brookings Institution.
The report, “Indiana GPS: Strategies for Resilience,” says new-business creation activity is lower in Indiana than in many other states. As a result, the report argues, the state is not as well-positioned as it might be to rebound from economic downturns.
“New-firm creation and entrepreneurship are a source of nimbleness,” said Mark Muro, a co-author of the report and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “This issue shouldn’t be discounted. This is one way to move through a rough time.”
Rick Proctor, executive director of entrepreneur services and the Business Ownership Initiative at the Indy Chamber, said entrepreneurs help an economy quickly adjust as conditions shift. “Small businesses pivot like no other. … They don’t have the luxury of waiting it out.”
As an example, Proctor said, his office helped a small business launch a food delivery service for the homebound when the pandemic hit last year.
But in Indiana, more people work for older, established firms than is the case in many parts of the country.
Nearly 40% of Indiana’s firms are at least 16 years old, and those companies employ about 80% of the state’s workforce.
In comparison, 31% of the nation’s firms are at least 16 years old, and they employ about 75% of the country’s workforce.
At the same time, only 30% of Indiana’s firms are 5 years old or younger, and they employ 8% of the state’s workforce. Nationally, 36% of firms are…
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