Main Street Monday – Over 57% of Small Business Owners are Baby Boomers
May 20, 2019
By Mary Miller
Contributing Editor, Main Street Monday
Main Street Monday – Over 57% of Small Business Owners are Baby Boomers
Over 57% of small business owners are baby boomers, according to findings from the latest Small Business Trends survey conducted by Guidant Financial and the LendingClub Corporation.
The survey, polling more than 2,700 current and aspiring U.S. small business owners, uncovered insights on baby boomer entrepreneurs.
“In 1996, about 20 percent of small business owners were over 50. Our survey shows that there is a massive shift toward baby boomer owned businesses – nearly 300 percent,” says David Nilssen, CEO of Guidant Financial. “This generation of entrepreneurs has had a huge and growing impact on small business in America and will continue to.”
Other survey findings (on a scale of one to 10; 10 being the highest):
On average, boomers rate their happiness as small business owners at eight on average.
Given the current political climate, baby boomers showed a modest decline in confidence levels, down three percentage points year over year.
Lack of capital or cash flow remains baby boomers’ top challenge year over year.
32% of baby boomer entrepreneurs continue to rely on cash as their first choice of small business financing, followed at 17% by Rollovers for Business Start-Ups [or 401(k) business financing]
73% of baby boomer small business owners want to grow their current business, 19% want to open an additional location. Only 8% want to sell their business.
69% of boomer small business owners employ two or more employees.
The top three baby boomer small business industries are ranked as Business Services, Food/Restaurant and Health/Beauty/Fitness.