The National Federal of Independent Businesses (NFIB), which is known for keeping the pulse on US small businesses through their monthly small business economics trends report, offers other interesting data on small business owners. There’s been a lot of mention lately that millennials have a start up mentality and are increasingly starting their own small businesses. According to a study conducted by the Small Business Majority, 51% of Millennials either own or would like to own a small business. The study also found that the 18-34 year olds’ main reasons for not starting up were money related: student debt and retirement money. NFIB found that the majority of SMB owners in the US are older – 45-55 year olds and ethnically diverse.
One thing that both Millennials, Gen Xers and Boomers have in common is technology adoption. Boomers and Gen Xers, according to Pew, are just as tech savvy. In our Local Commerce Monitor™ Wave 19 we looked at small businesses’ adoption of technology for advertising and marketing. We asked SMBs what their biggest reasons were for adoption of new technology. Across the age groups of our SMBs in the survey, the top reasons SMBs cited were reliability, cost effectiveness, integration with other technology and ease of use. When SMBs shop around for the best marketing platform or automated solution for their business, keep in mind that no matter the age of the owner, they are weighing their investment not on how powerful or new the technology is but what works best with their current technology, is reliable and cost effective.
