Baby Boomer Owners Fret More Than ‘In-Control’ Millennials, Chase for Business Survey Reveals

Millennials are more likely to feel in control in running their small businesses while GenX and Boomer business owners feel more challenges, according to findings released today from Chase for Business.

Chase’s “Survey for the Ages” quizzed Baby Boomer (ages 51-69), GenX (35-50) and Millennial (18-34) small business owners on topics from technology and job satisfaction to digital payments, loyalty programs and banking.

Here’s what they said:

• Staying in control: Millennials are more likely to describe being a small business owner as feeling in control (35%) compared to GenX (24%) and Boomer (29%) owners.
• Facing challenges: GenXers (68%) and Boomers (62%) are more likely to describe being a small business owner as challenging compared to Millennials (53%).
• Managing debt: GenXers (30%) and Boomers (33%) are also more likely to say managing debt and expenses is one of their biggest challenges compared to 23% of Millennials.
• Steering growth: GenXers (69%) and Millennials (68%) see growing their business as a concern, compared to Boomers (53%).

Keeping up on payment technology, loyalty and social media:

• Most small business owners (83%) feel the need to keep up with technology to remain competitive, of those one-quarter (73%) feel they’re doing so however Millennials (87%) are the largest in this group to feel this way compared to only 66% of GenX and Boomers.
• Staying loyal: Boomers (40%) don’t find loyalty programs as essential as Millennials (62%) and GenXers (64%).
• Many business owners realize the need to keep up with tech advancements (83 %) – among them, Millennials place much more importance on social media (60%) than GenXers (44%) and Boomers (46%)

“Small business owners of all ages know they need to keep up with technology, but they also need the tools to make the transition as simple and smooth as possible,” said Laura Miller, president of Ink from Chase, the business credit card portfolio of Chase for Business. Chase for Business integrates business banking, business cards and payment processing under a single brand.

The survey was fielded by Braun Research from July 9 through July 14, 2015. The survey reached 900 small business owners (SBOs) nationally of companies with one to 99 employees. The survey has a margin of error is +/- 3.3 percent.