CITY PAPER

FRANKLIN ENTREPRENEUR HAS AN EYE FOR BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2008

Optometrist Jim Tilley’s eyeglasses boutique seems well positioned to weather the challenges faced by many small businesses. “In the long run [defined as 10 years], roughly nine out of 10 start-up businesses will be gone,” said BRUCE LYNSKEY, a clinical professor of management at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Lynskey said the biggest reason small businesses fail is that the market deteriorates for their product and they don’t have the diversification of a big company as an offset.“Every next year in business is money in the bank for his survival,” Lynskey said.