When I saw this chart I immediately thought of Seth Godin’s Blog post The race to the bottom in which he cautioned against cutting corners or squeezing every penny out of the market or driving cost and services down in order to be competitive. He also cautioned that someone will always find a cheeper or more brutal way and that the problem with racing toward the bottom is that you might win. Perhaps this is the problem with US startups and small business.
In the Washington post article Christopher Ingraham doesn’t offer any insights into why this chart shows that US businesses are being destroyed faster then they are being created so I am only speculating that the race toward the bottom model of competition that so many North American small businesses are using is a contributing factor to this increase in failure. Once again I am only speculating but when ones options for purchasing necessary products are reduced to equally poor quality items from Walmart or Canadian Tire you know that the race toward to bottom is in the final stretch. We, the consumer only have ourselves to blame for supporting this race to poor quality and service.
I know I am complicit and have unfortunately done my share to support this race to the bottom but perhaps there is still time to support quality and the pursuit of better and those local people and businesses who are striving to offer quality and who are part of our communities.
