The 2018 Small Business Owner Survey from WalletHub has revealed access to a talented workforce is an important factor for their success. More than a third, or 38 percent, of small businesses, said this issue was more important than other factors.
2018 Small Business Owner Survey
Access to talent was more important than limited regulations (25 percent), low taxes (21 percent), easy access to credit (13 percent), and government incentives (3 percent). With a low unemployment rate and more jobs being created (241,000 jobs in March 2018) the job market is tight, which explains why this is a big concern for small businesses.
This issue was also highlighted at the Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Business Summit: The Big Power of Small Business held in February of this year. One of the key takeaways from the summit was 70 percent of small businesses are struggling to find and retain skilled employees.
The data from WalletHub comes from a nationally represented survey of more than 150 business owners carried out from 4/9/18 to 4/19/18. WalletHub offers free credit scores and full credit reports along with credit-improvement advice, savings alerts, and wallet surveillance.
Highlights From the Survey
Besides the challenges of finding the right talent, small business owners are generally optimistic. Seven in 10 said now is a good time for growth.
When it comes to financial windfalls, in this case, the savings from the Trump tax reforms, 40 percent said they are going to spend it on business development. Another 28 percent said it was going to executive/investor bonuses and 23 percent are adding it to their cash reserves. Only seven percent said it would go to employee compensation, while the remaining two percent said they would use it to hire more people.
As a company specializing in credit monitoring, WalletHub also asked small business owners their thought on credit cards and banks.
For 29 percent of the respondents, low fees was the most important feature in a business credit card. Expense management tools, good customer service, ongoing rewards and low regular APR was indicated by 18, 14, 11, and 10 percent of the respondents respectively.
Close to two thirds or 63 percent also said they pay too much on the processing fees for their credit card. Addressing the issue of security, an overwhelming majority or 90 percent said user protection on their business cards should be at least just as good as on personal cards.
As to business bank accounts, good customer service, monthly fee, and interest rate were the top three important features for 33, 26, and 18 percent of business owners respectively.
You can take a look at the rest of the WalletHub data in the infographic below.
Images: WalletHub
Talent is really important to business success. We are in a time when employees will be jumping between employers due to low supply and high competition. Business owners would be wise to employ methods to keep talent, including employment agreements with non-compete provisions. Losing talent can result in loss of customers and sensitive business information. Give thought to the means and methods of how you share your sensitive information with employees and use agreement to prevent them from sharing your info with new employers and prevent them from soliciting your customers to jump to new businesses.
Aira Bongco
I agree. Your success will depend on your employees. The more talented people you hire, the easier everything will be.