Predictions for entrepreneurship in 2009

Add The Wall Street Journal to the list of national organizations and media groups issuing predictions for 2009. This list, however, is somewhat more instructive, providing insight into what entrepreneurs could face in 2009.

Predictions include:

• Bankruptcies will continue to rise.
“Small businesses often don’t have the cash cushions to withstand more than a couple of months of tanking profits, and frankly banks aren’t likely to lend to these businesses either.”

• Foreclosures will bite entrepreneurs hard.
An analysis by the National Association for the Self-Employed found that 23% of the self-employed — or about 3.7 million people —  hold “toxic” mortgages that will reset at much higher interest rates in 2009.

• Focus shifts to online.
“As online shopping continues to grow, and more businesses look for cost-effective ways to market themselves in the down economy, more will build Web sites and experiment with local search and pay-per-performance ads and mobile marketing.”

• Entrepreneurship takes off.
The millions of newly unemployed will seek to start their own businesses. “Attendance is already way up at many entrepreneurship fairs. But getting external funding to start a new business will be the hard part.”