Millennial business owners are more likely than their older peers to want the government to protect consumers’ interests and focus on a cybersecurity plan than reducing regulations, according to a recent survey of businesses with annual sales between $100,000 and $20 million.
JP Morgan Chase conducted the Small Business Leaders Outlook 2018 survey, then broke out the results for millennial small businesses compared to businesses in general. Rieva Lesonsky of AllBusiness.com said some of the results are surprising.
- Millennial business owners are optimistic. While small business owners in general are optimistic, millennials are above average in this regard.
- Millennial business owners expect growth in 2018: 82 percent of millennial business leaders expect to see profits increase in 2018, compared to 62 percent of all small business leaders.
- Millennial business owners seek financing, with one-fourth of millennial business leaders considering financing to invest in their marketing efforts, and 26 percent thinking about financing in order to purchase inventory. In comparison, among all small business leaders, 14 percent are considering financing for marketing and 16 percent for purchasing inventory.
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- Millennial business owners have different priorities on where government should focus its energies. While overall, the top answer is reducing regulations, millennials are more likely to say consumer protection and cybersecurity.
- Millennial-owned businesses expect to hire more full-time employees by almost twice the rate of small business owners in general. However, they are suffering from some of the same problems that small business leaders in general are facing in finding qualified job candidates.
- While the majority of small business leaders are always looking for new technology to help them run better businesses, millennial business leaders are even more eager to take advantage of it.