The recently released Intuit Future of Small Business Report proclaims that by 2017 “the face of small business will dramatically change as seasoned baby boomers, kids fresh out of high school, mid-career women, ‘mompreneurs’ and new immigrants come together to create the most diverse pool of entrepreneurs ever”.

The study says this group will begin to replace the traditional white, middle-aged male entrepreneur. It also predicts that entrepreneurial education will expand significantly. MidwestBusiness.com has spoken with various mold-breaking entrepreneurs across the Midwest to illuminate some of the study’s key findings.

The Columbus Running Company storefront. Photo courtesy of the Columbus Running Company

“Of course it was a complicated decision. I wanted to do something where we could be our own bosses,” said Eric Fruth, 26, a co-founder of the Columbus Running Company in Columbus, Ohio.

He added: “I’m passionate about running. Opening this store allowed me to continue filling my life with running while earning a living.”

As a member of Gen-Y, Fruth’s comments support the Intuit study that this generation “views entrepreneurship as a way to maintain independence by owning their own careers and may well become the most entrepreneurial generation ever”.

While drive certainly is a common thread among all entrepreneurs, it seems that more young entrepreneurs are starting their own businesses based on their interests as an attractive alternative to trading them in for a big-box job. This seems to afford them a higher chance for success.

“We don’t just sell running gear. We also offer expert advice to anyone who comes in,” Fruth said. “We’re very involved in community run and walk events and with local running clubs. That passion has made us successful because we are the running-store destination for beginners and serious competitors.”

After 2.5 years and two stores, things are going smoothly for Fruth and his partner.

He added: “Your success as an entrepreneur depends on how well you can juggle many unforeseen tasks.” An English writing major who got a master’s in English after his undergraduate work, Fruth never took a single business course and doesn’t feel a business degree is a necessity.

“With my liberal arts background from DePauw, I learned to think on my own,” Fruth said of his foray into entrepreneurism. “I then taught myself the business side by going to the library and asking the right people good questions.”

“Entrepreneurship will be a widely adopted curriculum at educational, trade and vocational institutions,” the Intuit study said. “As a result, artists, musicians and others not traditionally exposed to business education will learn not just their trade but small-business management skills as well.”

As a runner, Fruth feels his experience as a serious college athlete prepared him more for entrepreneurship than any class could have. He added: “As a freshman, I wanted to be an all-American athlete. It took four years to reach that goal. The lessons I learned about perseverance and goal setting through that experience apply directly to the business world I’m in today.”

Cindy Craig, 40, runs a knitting and needlepoint business called The Studio in Kansas City, Mo.

The Studio storefront. Image courtesy of The Studio

“American entrepreneurship will reflect a huge upswing in the number of women,” the Intuit study said. “The glass ceiling that has limited women’s growth in traditional corporate career paths will send a rich talent pool to the small-business sector.”

In the case of The Studio, two female entrepreneurs each play different roles. Craig makes all the decisions but has no financial interest vested. The financial entrepreneur who had the idea and resources to make it happen is actually a female physician named Alie Scholes. Scholes added: “I finally fulfilled a longtime dream to own a knit shop.”

“For some professionals, entrepreneurship will complement a corporate career but not replace it,” the Intuit study said. “As a result, professionals will spend their careers alternating between two related worlds.”

A knitter since 1994, Craig had worked in the non-profit sector for 14 years. After moving from organization to organization, she wanted to have more responsibility and went back to school to earn her M.B.A. She lost her job two weeks after graduating in May and spent the summer applying to larger companies.

She didn’t even get a return phone call from firms like Sprint and H&R Block. Craig added: “I think my non-profit background made me unqualified on paper.” Through friends in the Kansas City knitting circle, she was then put in touch with Scholes who was buying a knitting shop. Scholes wanted to find others to run everything for her as she played the role of a venture capitalist.

In last-minute bargaining, Craig told Scholes that the only way she could do it would be if she could bring her son to work with her. Scholes approved. Craig oversaw the opening in Jan. 2001 and her son came to work with her until he started kindergarten. When she got pregnant again, her second son came to work with her for four years.

“That absolutely was the reason I chose to accept the offer and the reason I’m not interested in looking for another job,” Craig said. “I get a lot of satisfaction from the responsibility of running the store and I am still able to be a mom.”

The second reason she loves running her own business, which is likely similar to many baby boomers, is that she’s tired of having the momentum sucked out of an idea by bureaucratic red tape. Craig added: “I see immediate results from any idea I want to pursue because I have the power to implement it. This is a very satisfying and creative outlet for me.”

With an undergraduate degree in psychology, Craig praised local high school Cristo Rey for offering entrepreneurial training to others. Started by a Jesuit priest in Chicago, Cristo Rey has 10 locations across the U.S. that are designed to propel low-income students to college.

The young students get a taste of entrepreneurism by working in a business environment five days a month. The Studio participates in this program and employs two girls. Craig added: “They have incredible success rates: something like a 90 percent rate of graduating college. There must be something very valuable about real-world entrepreneurial training.”

The Intuit study predicts we will see more education like this in the future.

“Entrepreneurial training will begin much earlier in life with universities, secondary and vocational schools – and even some elementary schools – offering entrepreneurship as a mainstream subject,” the study said. “At the college level, the emphasis will widen and will focus not just on high-growth businesses backed by venture capital but on small-business ownership of all kinds.”

Driven by diminished job security, disappearing pensions and health benefits and the need to match savings with longer life expectancies, the study also reports that baby boomers will reject retirement. Craig’s situation seems to support this theory.

As a young boomer, she and her husband are investing independently in retirement. She added: “I think this is the sort of job I could do well at into old age.” She cited the former owner of the store who is in her 70s and still handles the wholesales business for the studio.

When it comes to retirement, Craig pointed out the difference she feels between owning a business and working for someone else: “When you’ve built the baby, it’s very hard to walk away. When you’ve worked for a big-box company, you don’t feel as directly responsible. You think: ‘I put in my 40 years and now I want my gold watch.’”

Karan Goel, 23, of PrepMe.com is based in Chicago.

Goel, who graduated from the University of Chicago in 2004 and got his M.B.A. in 2006, may be a bit more conventional than the rest. Still, he represents the very young face of entrepreneurship that is becoming more common.

As a project in business school, the business plan for PrepMe.com won a competition and went on to become a successful venture following his graduation. Just a few weeks ago, PrepMe.com announced that it will be doing SAT test preparation for the entire state of Maine.

Goel says the motivation for starting his own business was not simply to gain self-sufficiency in the workplace: “While I wanted the excitement and independence of running my own business, mostly I really wanted to fix something that bugged me. You don’t just start a business to start a business.”

Goel realized this "bug" when he found his classmates frustrated by their expensive and yet underwhelming classroom and private tutoring SAT preparation experiences.

“Private tutoring was too expensive,” Goel said. “Most test preparation was boring and was being taught by impassioned people. Still, test preparation is very necessary.”

Unlike baby boomers and especially women looking for a better balance between life and work, it seems that Gen-Y people like Goel don’t expect this from entrepreneurship. He added: “Though my balance between work and life is worse, I know I’m working my butt off for something I’m passionate about.”

The study points at other trends that will appear in entrepreneurship by 2017 with these findings: “Immigrant entrepreneurs will drive a new wave of globalization and U.S. immigration policy. The outcome of the current immigration debates will affect how this segment performs over the next decade.

Contract workers and accidental and social entrepreneurs will fuel a proliferation of personal businesses. Economic, social and technological change – and an increased interest in flexible work schedules – will produce a more independent workforce seeking a better work-life balance.”