April Startup Sentiment Index™ Shows Confidence About the Business Environment, Despite Concerns about Funding

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May 5, 2021 – Entrepreneurs who agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business” settled in April at 65.4% of respondents, slightly off of March’s twelve-month high reading of 69.3%. 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 April 22-29, 2021, as news of vaccination rates surpassed 50% of adults in the US.

Additional highlights:

Future business conditions: Respondents see further improvement ahead, with almost 51% of respondents believing that in three months, business conditions will be “better” or “much better” than now.
Access to funding: Entrepreneurs’ concerns over acquiring adequate funding grew, with those seeing funding “harder or much harder” to obtain rose to 34.8% in April from 30.1% in March, 2021. In fact, a new record of 87.6% of respondents indicated that “funding or access to credit” was the biggest factor in their business startup plans.
Demographics: 46.9% of respondents are currently employed full-time (highest since August of 2020), and 17.7% are current business owners. Gen-X (53.1%) and Gen-Y (29.9%) are the largest age cohorts, while “Baby Boomers” follow at 14.7%.

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, May 4th, 2021.