EXCLUSIVE—Small businesses owners share a mostly positive outlook on economic growth for the next year. The most optimistic owners are millennials, according to data from the Bank of America Fall 2017 Small Business Owner Report.
The survey of about 1,000 small businesses, released last week, found that the majority of millennial entrepreneurs (81%, the survey says) expect their revenues to increase within the next 12 months. This is compared to just 60% of Gen X business owners and only 40% of baby boomer owners.
For this survey, BofA looks at small businesses with revenues between $100,000 and $5 million.
Millennial SMB owners are also more likely to have confidence in their local economy, with 63% expecting that economy to improve over the next 12 months, compared to just 47% of Gen X and baby boomer owners, respectively.
Millennials are also more interested in growth than owners in other age demographics, according to the survey, with 76% of millennials stating that they had plans to grow their business over the next five years compared to 65% of Gen X owners and only 44% of baby boomer owners.
This is despite the perception that millennial small business owners are “more conservative” when it comes to investing or seeking out loans, Don Vecchiarello, SVP, small business communications for Bank of America told Bank Innovation.
“You’d think [the conservative approach] would be reflected for SMBs, but it wasn’t in this report,” Vecchiarello said.
Vecchiarello also highlighted Bank of America’s role in U.S. small business growth, along with Sharon Miller, managing director, head of small business for BofA.
“We have $3.5 billion outstanding to SMBs in the U.S. for capital, to infuse into [their] businesses in situations where we’re supporting the local economy,” Miller told Bank Innovation.
As well as a positive outlook on growth, millennial owners are also (unsurprisingly) more likely to embrace digital tools, with 49% of millennial owners stating that social media use impacts the bottom line of their business versus only 37% of Gen X owners and just 26% of boomers.
Take a look at the full report here.