Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies

Southern California Entrepreneur Survey

The Southern California Entrepreneur Survey is an annual survey launched in 2007. It is conducted by the Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the students enrolled in the Entrepreneur Program at USC’s Marshall School of Business. Each student identifies and contacts an entrepreneur, and meets with him or her to conduct an in-depth interview to learn about the process of starting a business. As part of the interview, students ask the entrepreneurs to respond to a brief survey designed to capture key demographic and business information.

The entrepreneurs are the owner-managers of independent, growth-oriented businesses located in Southern California, operating in a wide range of industry sectors. The survey report addresses the following questions:

Who are Southern California’s growth-oriented entrepreneurs in terms of age, gender, education? What experience did they have prior to starting their current business?
Did they conduct formal feasibility studies and write business plans when starting their businesses? From where did they get advice and funding?
What is this population of entrepreneurial businesses like in terms of age, size, industry sector?
What are the goals that the entrepreneurs have for their companies? Have the goals changed since the time of start-up? How are the entrepreneurs doing in terms of meeting their goals?
How do these entrepreneurial companies contribute to the Southern California economy through job creation, sales growth, and exporting?
Looking back, what do entrepreneurs think of their experiences? What advice do they have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Download a pdf-file with the full Southern California Entrepreneur Survey Report 2008.

For the 2007 report, please click here.