What Keeps Small Business Owners Up At Night?
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There are more than 28 million small businesses in America that employ about one-third of the workforce. Trends indicate the number of small businesses has increased about 50 percent since 1982, and are responsible for adding about eight million jobs to the U.S. economy. According to the
The "Top Five Things Keeping Small-Business Owners Up at Night" are:
- Functionality and reliability of technology to run the business
- Taxes, government regulations and healthcare reform
- Financing, with decreasing ability to acquire funds year-over-year
- Customer acquisition and retention
- Talent management, including recruiting and retaining staff.
Notably, labor issues are the single largest business expense encompassing about 50 percent of revenue for small businesses. While firms with high-performing employees are projected to grow three times faster than their peers, these employees are consistently being recruited by other firms. Firms with high-performing talent have a 350 percent growth variance between firms with low-performing talent, and the issues impacting a multi-generational workforce have given way to challenging engagement tactics for small businesses.
Other key findings from the
- 78 percent of small-business owners state their company is performing profitably.
- About one-third of small businesses attribute their company performance to the economy (36 percent), followed by market changes to their industry (27 percent).
- Small businesses are most concerned with competition from other small businesses in their area (46 percent).
- Four in 10 responded that the biggest risk to their business is an interruption due to injury or illness; followed by 16 percent who are concerned with data lost, stolen or compromised; and having essential equipment break down (11 percent).
Gaps in business revenue pose as a large threat for small businesses. Markedly, 25 percent of small-business claims reported to
As a provider for more than 250,000 small-business policyholders distributed through more than 10,000 small-business insurance agency owners,
Survey Methodology
A survey of 520 small-business owners or operators with 25 employees or fewer was conducted from
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SOURCE
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