March Startup Sentiment Index™ Shows Aspiring Business Owners Increasingly Confident

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Entrepreneurs who agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business” grew in March to 69.3% of respondents, the highest recorded since February 2020 before the pandemic became headline news. FranchiseInsights.com compiles monthly the Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ (SSI) of individuals who have recently inquired about businesses for sale.

The most recent Startup Sentiment Index™ survey was conducted March 25-30, 2021, as news of accelerated vaccination timelines was tempered by reports of increasing Covid cases, following a significant jump in air travel associated with Spring vacationing in the US.

Additional highlights:

• Future business conditions: Respondents see further improvement ahead, with almost 58% of respondents believing that in three months, business conditions will be “better” or “much better” than now, increasing four months in a row from 42.6% in December, 2020.
• Access to funding: Entrepreneurs’ concerns abated some, with those seeing funding “harder or much harder” to obtain dropping back to 30.1% in March from 33.1% in February, 2021. Nonetheless, a new record of 76.9% of respondents indicated that “funding” was the biggest barrier to their business startup plans.
• Demographics: 49.7% of respondents are currently employed full-time (highest since August of 2020), and 16% are current business owners. Gen-X (49.2%) and Gen-Y (30.9%) are the largest age cohorts, while “Baby Boomers” follow at 16.8%.

The Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ is derived from a monthly survey of individuals who have recently inquired about businesses or franchises for sale on the digital assets of FranchiseVentures, and measures business-buyer sentiment on more than a dozen factors.

Franchise Ventures is the leading franchise lead-generation platform for potential franchisees to thousands of growing franchise systems in the United States and Canada. Its franchise lead generation brands include Franchise.com, Franchise Solutions, Franchise Gator, Franchise Opportunities, Franchise For Sale, SmallBusinessStartup.com and BusinessBroker.net, and together they provide the largest aggregation of prospective franchise buyers in the U.S.

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Published on Tuesday, April 6th, 2021.