Small Business Startup Sentiment Survey Shows Prospective Business Buyers Moving Up Timelines

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA — September 7, 2022 — A higher percentage of aspiring business owners are eager to get started in the coming month, while fewer see business conditions improving in three months. Nonetheless, 72.6% see conditions for business startups “the same or better in three months”, 42.7% see conditions the same, 29.9% see them improving, and only 27.4% expect business conditions to worsen. 

In August, 56.4% of entrepreneurs planned their startups within the next three months, down from July’s record 61.7%. Currently, 69.2% of would-be entrepreneurs agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business”, approaching the recent  high of 73.5% in February. 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 25-31, 2022. 

Additional highlights:

• Future business conditions: While most respondents see conditions “about the same” for startups (42.7%), the declining trend of those seeing future conditions better and increase in those seeing future conditions worse may be cause for concern in the coming months, consistent with national surveys of consumer confidence.
• Access to funding: The percentage of entrepreneurs concerned about finding  adequate funding eased to 66.2%, with those seeing funding “harder or much harder” to obtain in the next three months dipping to 41.1%.
• Demographics: 52.5% of respondents were currently employed full-time, and 18% were current business owners seeking an additional business. Gen-X (56.8%) and Gen-Y “Millennials” (28.1%) were the largest age cohorts, and “Baby Boomers” slumped to 12.2% of respondents. Gen-Z trailed at 2.2%.

Download a copy of the August 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, September 7th, 2022.