Despite Headlines, Aspiring Business Owners More Optimistic than Three Months Ago

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA — May 4, 2022 — April 2022 saw inflation at a 40-year high, war in Ukraine entering its third month, and the worst drop in S & P 500 performance since 1970. Despite all the uncertainty, 59.3% of aspiring business owners surveyed in April were resolute about starting their businesses within the coming three months, and 67.2% were “more or much more likely” to startup than three months ago.

Not surprisingly, 77.1% of these survey respondents see business conditions about the same or getting better in the next three months. Currently, 69.2% of would-be entrepreneurs agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business”, up from 67.7% in March,  according to the Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ by FranchiseInsights.com.

Of respondents in April, 40.5% say that the pandemic actually boosted the desire to control their destiny through business ownership, though 51.7% say that it has reduced the amount of capital they have to invest.

The most recent Startup Sentiment Index™ survey was conducted April 21-28, 2022. 

Additional highlights:

• Future business conditions: In an acknowledgment of how good business conditions are now, only 28% of respondents believe that in three months, business conditions will be “better” or “much better” than now. About 49.2% see conditions “about the same” in three months.
• Access to funding: The percentage of entrepreneurs concerned about finding  adequate funding eased to 68.7%, with those seeing funding “harder or much harder” to obtain in the next three months at 37%.
• Demographics: In April, 42.6% of respondents were currently employed full-time, and 13.9% were current business owners seeking an additional business. Gen-X (50.9%) and Gen-Y “Millennials” (32.5%) were the largest age cohorts, and “Baby Boomers” followed at 15.8%, followed by Gen-Z at 0.9%.

Download a copy of the April 2022 FranchiseInsights.com SSI report here. See excerpts from prior SSI™ surveys and subscribe to receive the Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ monthly report when it is released.

The Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ is based on a monthly survey of individuals who have recently inquired about businesses or franchises for sale on the digital assets of FranchiseVentures.

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 Wednesday, May 4th, 2022.