Owners in Their First Three Years Rank Advertising 21st of 75 Problems. Owners of 21 Years or More Rank It 52nd

NFIB’s 2024 problems survey, split by how long the owner has had the business: the same top of the list, and a very different middle.

The top of the list does not move

NFIB asks its members to rate 75 possible problems from critical to not a problem, roughly every four years, and publishes the results split several ways. One split is how long the respondent has owned the business. The newest group, three years or fewer, is small: 106 owners. The longest, 21 years or more, is 1,548. Both put the cost of health insurance first and uncertainty over economic conditions second. The share calling health insurance critical reads 34.8% for the newer owners and 44.6% for the longer-tenured ones, but with only 106 owners in the first group that gap does not pass the test used here.

Getting found, getting financed

Lower down, the lists come apart. Owners of three years or fewer rank the ability to advertise cost-effectively 21st; owners of 21 years or more rank it 52nd. Using social media to promote the business is 41st against 60th, and competition from internet businesses 43rd against 62nd. The money problems follow the same line: getting a long-term loan is 49th against 69th, a short-term loan or credit line 48th against 68th, and errors in a credit rating or record 46th against 72nd.

Owners in their first three years rank customers and credit higher. Owners of 21 years or more rank taxes, rules and exposure higher.

Taxes, rules and exposure

For the owners of 21 years or more, a different set ranks higher. The estate tax ranks 39th against 70th for the newest owners, and 19.5% of them call it critical. Environmental regulations rank 35th against 63rd, cyber crime 34th against 61st, frequent changes in federal tax rules 14th against 34th, and the cost and availability of liability insurance 17th against 35th. On the share calling a problem critical, six of these gaps are wide enough to stand on their own: advertising, long-term loans and social media for the newer owners; estate tax, environmental rules and cyber crime for the longer-tenured ones.

What to take from this if you run the place

If you are in your first few years, the survey says your list is not longer than a veteran’s; it is pointed somewhere else. The worries that rank higher are about getting in front of customers and getting the money to keep going. If you have been at it for decades, the ones that rank higher are about what you have built up and what can be taken from it: taxes on passing it on, rules, liability, a breach. The survey does not say why, and it cannot say that an owner’s list will move this way over time: these are different owners, each answering once. It does give you a fair check: are you spending your attention on the problems that sit high on a list like yours, or on the ones that sit high on someone else’s?

Three limits worth holding. This is years of ownership, not the age of the business: an owner who bought an old firm last year counts as new. The respondents are NFIB members, and NFIB publishes no margins of error, so gaps here are tested against the spread of answers; the newest group has just 106 owners. And with 75 problems compared, a few gaps would pass any test by chance, which is why this piece leads with the widest.

Published by The Lonely Entrepreneur — the community and coaching platform for entrepreneurs who are building alone. lonelyentrepreneur.com

This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial or legal advice.