Small Business Startup Sentiment Rises to the Most Positive in Eight Months

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA — March 3, 2022 — On February 24th, the day the survey launched, news headlines of the invasion of Ukraine stunned the world and roiled financial markets. Despite the uncertainty, 57.4% of aspiring business owners were resolute about starting their businesses within the next three months. Further, 76% of these survey respondents see business conditions about the same or getting better in the next three months. Over  73% of would-be entrepreneurs agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business”, up from 63% in January.

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 February 24-28, 2022.

A record 30.6% of respondents say that the pandemic is no longer a factor, but 42.9% say that it reduced the amount of capital they have to invest.

Additional highlights:

• Future business conditions: In an acknowledgement of just how good business conditions are now, 43.5 of respondents believe that in three months, business conditions will be “better” or “much better” than now, down from a recent high of 46.5% in September. About 42.9% see conditions “about the same” in three months.
• Access to funding: The percentage of entrepreneurs concerned about finding  adequate funding increased slightly, with those seeing funding “harder or much harder” to obtain rising to 32.7%.
• Demographics: In December, 46.4% of respondents were currently employed full-time, and 19.3% were current business owners seeking an additional business. Gen-X (50.0%) and Gen-Y “Millennials” (34.7%) were the largest age cohorts, and “Baby Boomers” followed at 13.9%.

Download a copy of the February 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 Thursday, March 3rd, 2022.