October Startup Sentiment Index™ Shows a Three-Month Trend in Advancing Startup Timelines

The number of respondents agreeing that "now is a good time to start a business" reached a three-month high at 60.6% in October, from a monthly survey of individuals who have recently inquired about businesses for sale, in responses collected Oct. 24-26, 2020, for the FranchiseInsights.com Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ (SSI).

Additional highlights:

  • Concerns regarding a​ccess to funding, historically the most significant factor, decreased significantly in October with the 31.7% saying that funding will be "easier or much easier" three months from now, edging out "harder or much harder" at 30.2% of respondents.
  • While the pandemic has had a devastating impact on small businesses, 44.3% of the respondents indicated that COVID-19 actually increased their "interest in controlling their destiny through business ownership" in October's survey.
  • The number of would-be entrepreneurs who have "decided to put their startup plans on hold" plummeted from 20.6% in September to 10.7% in October, a 48% decrease.

"It looks like would-be entrepreneurs see clear skies after the election," says Michael Alston, senior advisor to FranchiseInsights.com. "They may provide a partial explanation to the mismatch between measured expectations for economic recovery amid pandemic setbacks and the ebullient mood of investors" as reflected in the stock market.

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

In September, Franchise Insights reported the dramatic increase in intent to start a business "three months out." These notable improvements in buyer optimism might suggest that buyers were looking beyond the election to the prospects of vaccines and other pandemic countermeasures. 

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.

About Franchise Insights

A unit of FranchiseVentures, Franchise Insights provides research and intelligence to help the franchise industry and investors understand and meet the needs of budding entrepreneurs who want to own their own businesses. With a vast and growing proprietary data set of U.S. franchise inquiries, we use the tools of data science to make inferences and discover best practices to foster the growth of small businesses.

FranchiseVentures is the leading demand generation platform for aspiring business buyers and franchisees to thousands of growing franchise systems in the United States and Canada. Its franchise lead generation brands include Franchise.com, FranchiseSolutions.com, FranchiseGator.com, FranchiseOpportunities.com, FranchiseForSale.com, SmallBusinessStartup.com and BusinessBroker.net, and together they provide the largest aggregation of prospective business and franchise buyers in the U.S.

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Media Contact:
Michael Alston
Phone: 757.351.8808
Email: malston@deonline.com

Source: Franchise Insights