August Startup Sentiment Index™ Shows Record High Intent to Start Within Six Months

Aspiring Business Owners Consistently Optimistic

Entrepreneurs who agree or strongly agree that "now is a good time to start a business" were 67.9% in August, up slightly from July, but down from the record level of 76.9% reached in June 2021. Nonetheless, a record 78.2% aspiring owners anticipate starting their businesses within six months. 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 Aug. 19-25, 2021, as concerns about the spread and transmissibility of the Delta Covid variant grew. 

Additional highlights:

  • Future business conditions: Respondents are positive about the current state of the economy, with 41.3% believing that, in three months, business conditions will be "better" or "much better" than now, up from 40.7% in July. Over 47% see conditions "about the same" in three months.
  • Access to funding: The percentage of entrepreneurs concerned about acquiring adequate funding dipped, with those seeing funding "harder or much harder" to obtain at 32.2% in August, up from 27.4% in July.
  • Demographics: 47.5% of respondents are currently employed full-time, and 16.4% are current business owners. Gen-X (46.7%) and Gen-Y (34.6%) are the largest age cohorts, while "Baby Boomers" follow at 16.5%.

"The next six months should be prime time for new business formation," says Hunter Stokes, president of FranchiseVentures. "These individuals have waited long enough and are ready to fulfill dreams of being their own boss."

Download a copy of the August 2021 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.

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 directory 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.

For more research from the FranchiseInsights.com proprietary data set, subscribe above or follow us on LinkedIn.

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

Source: FranchiseInsights.com