Friday, April 3, 2026

Aspiring Business Owners Increasingly Confident

Thu, 08 April 2021  |  small business 

Entrepreneurs who agree or strongly agree that "now is a good time to start a business" grew in March to 69.3% of respondents, the highest recorded since February 2020, before the pandemic became headline news. 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 March 25-30, 2021, as news of accelerated vaccination timelines was tempered by reports of increasing Covid cases, following a significant jump in air travel associated with spring vacationing in the U.S.

Additional highlights:

• Future business conditions: Respondents see further improvement ahead, with almost 58% of respondents believing that in three months, business conditions will be "better" or "much better" than now, increasing four months in a row from 42.6% in December 2020.
• Access to funding: Entrepreneurs' concerns abated some, with those seeing funding "harder or much harder" to obtain dropping back to 30.1% in March from 33.1% in February 2021. Nonetheless, a new record of 76.9% of respondents indicated that "funding" was the biggest barrier to their business startup plans.
• Demographics: 49.7% of respondents are currently employed full-time (highest since August of 2020), and 16% are current business owners. Gen-X (49.2%) and Gen-Y (30.9%) are the largest age cohorts, while "Baby Boomers" follow at 16.8%.

"Business conditions as perceived by aspiring business owners haven't been better since the pandemic unfolded," says Hunter Stokes, president of FranchiseVentures. "The next several months should show a wave of startups based on this data."

Source: FranchiseInsights.com