As the economy was recovering, there was talk about small business owners gaining confidence in the economy and possibly hiring for their business. Nationally the confidence small business owners felt is declining or slipping away completely. It is not surprising then the hiring has taken a back seat for the moment, and businesses are more concerned with meeting their current payroll instead of adding to it. And what about retirement? According to recent surveys, more than half of the small business owners in the United States do not have enough to retire comfortably or at all.
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Survey: Small Business Owners Unprepared for Retirement
Almost half of small business owners surveyed are unsure what will happen to their business when they retire.
A survey conducted recently by TD Bank demonstrated 26% of small business owners are not confident they will save enough money to retire comfortably. The survey of more than 660 small business owners nationwide questioned respondents about their management experience, confidence in business tasks and areas in which they need help.
Nearly half of survey respondents (47%) said they do not have plans in place for retirement, whereas about a quarter of respondents (24%) indicated their business would close, and 15% of business owners said they would transfer ownership of their business to a family member or coworker.
External factors affect retirement planning
“Building a small business is hard work, and it can be easy to get caught up in daily tasks such as paying invoices or increasing sales, but smart business operations need to consider the future, including the retirement of the owner,”Jay DesMarteu, head of Small Business Banking for TD Bank, said in a press release. “Just as those in the workforce should invest in themselves through retirement savings, small business owners need to have conversations about retirement and prepare for the future to ease the transition, whether that be closing or selling the business or passing it on to a family member.”
Small business optimism slips two percent in July
THOMASVILLE — Small businesses in Cairo and Thomasville reflect the findings of a recent survey that showssmall businesses in Georgia were increasingly worried about economic conditions in July.
Thumbtack.com’s Small Business Sentiment Survey is a monthly survey of independent local service businesses in the U.S. As part of its survey, the company included 523 responses from Georgia.
The key findings for the state showed that Georgia small business owners’ feelings about their current finances declined by 2 percent while expectations for the economy as a whole dropped by 4 percent.
Concerns over tightening access to credit were particularly pronounced as expectations for the availability of credit declined by 5 percent. Nevertheless, Georgia’s independent local service professionals remain more optimistic about future economic conditions than the rest of the South and the nation as a whole.
Small businesses in Georgia reported that their biggest concern was acquiring new customers. In regards to hiring, Georgia’s small business owners reported a 3 percent decline in plans to add employees to their ranks.
Jay Evans, owner of Babcock & More Home Furniture in Thomasville, Cairo and Camilla, said in an interview with the Times-Enterprise (TTE) that he hasn’t had to cut employees, but he hasn’t hired any, either.
Why Is It So Hard To Serve Small Business? Blame The 90% Challenge
There’s a convenient narrative about small business that we’ve all heard a million times. Small business represents a huge, underserved, and highly lucrative market for finance-oriented entrepreneurs and large organizations alike. The prevailing wisdom is that these businesses run on Intuit’s QuickBooks, which enables them to have organized, accurate, and timely financial information at their fingertips. By all accounts, the small business market should be an easy one to serve. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Organizations big and small have struggled to serve the small business market in an efficient and effective matter, and it’s all due to what we call the 90% challenge.
The 90% challenge
My company BodeTree started out as one of those optimistic startups that thought serving the small business segment would be easy. We quickly realized, however that the commonly held wisdom was wrong. Of the 30 million small businesses in the U.S., the vast majority operate in a state of utter chaos, even if they use an accounting system of some kind. The reality is that for most small businesses, the traditional process of organizing and managing their finances is too complex, too difficult, and too time consuming.
