Business Buyers Look Beyond the November Election for Their Startups

By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights

September 4, 2024 – Almost 63% of aspiring business owners surveyed either agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business,” with optimism about conditions ahead. In the August 2024 survey, 93.3% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months”, the highest reading since September 2021.

Of this month’s respondents, 48.1% of entrepreneurs planned their startups within the next three months, down from 56.2% last month. Further, 63.5% of entrepreneurs surveyed say they are “more or much more likely to launch their startups than three months ago.”

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 August 26-31, 2024.

Concerns about “political changes” remain elevated for the fourth consecutive month.

Additional highlights:

Future business conditions: Reversing a pandemic-induced multi-year downtrend in sentiment about future business conditions, about 93.3% of respondents see conditions no worse – staying the same or getting better in three months– with 64.4% seeing conditions “about the same” as now, which they view as good. This month only 6.7% see conditions getting worse or much worse..
Access to funding: The percentage of entrepreneurs concerned about finding adequate funding rose slightly to 65.4%, and those who see funding “harder or much harder” to obtain in the next three months shrank to 24% of respondents. But “political changes” again ranked third among concerns for August for the fourth month in a row, up from ranking fifth in April.
Demographics: Of the survey respondents, 43.3% are currently employed full-time, down from the record 61.7% in June. Another 14.4% of respondents were current business owners seeking an additional or replacement business. Freelancers and consultants were 26%, followed by part-timers at 15.4%. The Gen-X cohort was at 47.4% of respondents, down from the record 63.9% seen in June. Millennials were 23.7%, trailing Baby Boomers at 24.7%.Gen-Z were 1% of respondents in August.

Download a copy of the latest FranchiseInsights.com Small Business Startup Sentiment 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 FranchiseVentures lead generation platform.

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, September 3rd, 2024.