Award Date

12-2009

Degree Type

Professional Paper

Degree Name

Master of Hospitality Administration

Department

Hotel Administration

First Committee Member

Mehmet Erdem, Chair

Number of Pages

36

Abstract

The US Small Business Association reports that 99.9% of all US business can be classified as small. Having less than 500 employees small businesses provide work for just over half of all US private sector workers (2009). Additionally, less than 2% of those businesses have between 100-499 employees (Headd & Kirchhoff, 2009), leaving approximately 97% of all US businesses employing 99 or fewer employees. Given this statistic, it would stand to reason that small businesses have a higher success rate than large ones; however, developing and opening a small business does not occur without risk. The SBA reports that only 51% of new small firms last more than five years (2009). When developing a business plan for a small company or corporation, consideration must be given to both the challenges and opportunities of entrepreneurialism such as the economy, competition and the workforce pool (Moutray, 2008).

Local research has revealed that since the storm some small business owners have recorded the best revenues they have ever had (Anonymous, (personal communication, March 2008)) while others, even some considered New Orleans institutions such as O’Flaherty’s Irish Pub, have had to shutter their doors. The unpredictable nature of which small businesses are succeeding in the wake of the post-Katrina recession has led to the purpose of this paper: to illustrate the challenges, milestones and progress SBOs and entrepreneurs are facing in post- Katrina New Orleans.

Keywords

Business enterprises — Size; Louisiana — New Orleans; Small business; Small business – Employees; Success in business

Disciplines

Business | Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations | Hospitality Administration and Management

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download


Share

COinS