Brewed Fresh Daily

"Our entrepreneurial spirits are high says the annual Global Entrepreneurship Monitor study: More than one in 10 working Americans were creating or growing new businesses last year, off only slightly from 2001 but still 50 percent higher than in 1998, at the height of Internet fever. More findings: �Optimism in business opportunities held steady last year after just one year of decline. Informal investment in new businesses, often from families and friends, is holding up better than venture capital investment, which retreated for three consecutive years until the most recent quarter. The rate of high-growth start-ups tracks closely with the rate of education. And, a gender gap persists in the entrepreneurial ranks, even in the 18- to 24-year-old age bracket, where men are three times as likely as women to start businesses.�"