Self-Employment: Improving Policy and Practice

Contrary to popular belief small businesses have a good success rate. Researchers who had originally analyzed the data and found high rates of business failures re-analyzed the same data and found that, after 8 years, 80 % of small businesses are still operating. They discovered that the original research counted as failures businesses that were sold, incorporated, or where the owner retired. Kraus and Stoddard (1991) in their book Chartbook on Work Disability in the United States, report the following: Nearly as many people with disabilities report being self-employed as report working for federal, state, and local government combined. 14.6 % of men with a work disability are self-employed, compared with 9.6 % of women with no work disability. 9.0 % of women with a work disability are self-employed, compared with 5.6 % of women with no work disability. The Research and Training Center on Rural Rehabilitation Services (RTC:Rural) undertook a series of studies on how the Vocational Rehabilitation system uses self-employment as an outcome