For business owners, 2018 is just around the corner, and as with everyone else, only the future knows what is in store for them in the coming year. But based on how the economy is going and how they performed in 2017, many are expecting some positive developments in the cards within the days soon to come, according to the results of a recent survey.
Owners under 35 highly optimistic
Nearly 70 percent of small-business owners say they’re optimistic about continued growth in 2018, based on polling performed by SCORE, a mentoring firm for entrepreneurs. Millennials are particularly heartened about what the upcoming six months hold, with more than 80 percent of 18- to 35-year-olds feeling optimistic about their growth prospects.
“Millennials are particularly business-owner minded.”
The largest generation in America, based on the most recent figures from the Census Bureau, millennials are business-owner minded, other polls seem to suggest. For instance, in analysis done by The Center for Generational Kinetics, roughly 60 percent of millennials – otherwise known as millenipreneurs – consider owning a business to be better than working for someone else, believing that it comes with greater job security.
Jason Dorsey, president and co-founder of CGK, told CNN Money that millennials are confident about their success in business because of the amount of resources they feel are available to them. It’s a by-product of the era they’re living in, when information is instantly available.
“Millennials have a different native relationship with technology by virtue of growing up with the internet and the mobile revolution,” Dorsey explained. “[They] are at the right life stage to be able to see what’s not working and be courageous enough to challenge it.”
Millenipreneurs worry about finding qualified candidates
That said, millennials still have some concerns heading into the new year. Their biggest fear pertains to finding – and maintaining – qualified workers. Forty-one percent of millennials in the SCORE survey said this was their largest stress point, more so than business owners overall, 33 percent of whom said this was something they worried about.
Bad hires can come back to bite business owners, both in terms of productivity and profitability. In 2016, the typical company lost $14,900 for every worker they hired that didn’t work out, according to data compiled by CareerBuilder. So it stands to reason that millennials can’t help but be concerned about finding workers that fit.
“Bad hires cost the typical business owner in 2016 $14,900.”
Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder, recommended managers to perform their due diligence to avoid hiring hang-ups, ensuring that they have the appropriate procedures in place to winnow down the potential field to those whose experience makes them ideal candidates.
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