Founder Data ReportOwners Say They Do It for the Money and to Be Their Own Boss — and the Two Are Tied. Only 6.8% Are Here Because They Could Not Find a Job.
You can’t afford to risk your business without a Sidekick at your side.
The Census Bureau asked 4.2 million business owners to rate, one by one, why they own the business. The answers dismantle two of the most repeated stories about small business at once.
Ask a room of business owners why they do this and you will get a room of different answers. The Census Bureau asked 4.2 million of them, in a survey nobody reads, and made them rate twelve specific reasons one at a time. The result is the closest thing there is to a national answer — and the headline is that the two reasons at the top, greater income at 62.1% and wanted to be my own boss at 61.5%, are close enough to be a tie. Money and autonomy are not competing explanations. They are the same answer, given twice.
- 4,199,894 owners of US employer firms rated each reason for owning their business.
- Greater income (62.1%) and wanted to be my own boss (61.5%) tie at the top — 0.6 points apart against standard errors of 0.3 and 0.5.
- Balance work and family is third at 55.8%.
- “Couldn’t find a job” comes last: only 6.8% call it very important and 77.8% say it did not matter at all.
- The top reason differs by sex: for women it is balance work and family (60.1%); for men it is wanted to be my own boss (65.1%).
Income and autonomy tie at the top
Eleven reasons, ranked by the share of owners calling each one very important. Owners rated every reason separately rather than picking one, so these are not shares of a pie — an owner can call six things very important, and most do. Greater income leads at 62.1%, with wanted to be my own boss 0.6 points behind at 61.5%. Given standard errors of 0.3 and 0.5 points, that gap is too small to call a winner. The honest reading is that they are level.
On a 0-100% axis. Orange marks the two tied leaders and the last-placed reason. The twelfth option, “Other”, is left out: only about a fifth of owners rated it at all, so it is not comparable with the eleven every owner was asked.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey, 2023 Characteristics of Business Owners (table AB2300CSCBO), question O10, all sectors, United States, downloaded from www2.census.gov on September 20, 2026. Covers owners of respondent employer firms; owners could rate every reason independently, so the shares do not sum to 100% across reasons.
Almost nobody is here because they ran out of options
There is a durable story about small business in which people start companies because the job market failed them — the necessity entrepreneur. The survey puts a number on it, and the number is small. Only 6.8% of owners call “couldn’t find a job” a very important reason for owning their business. 77.8% say it was not important at all. Set that against greater income, where the not-important share is 9.6%, and the shape of the two answers is close to inverted.
The mirror image of the chart above: the share saying each reason did not matter at all. Orange is the necessity-entrepreneur reason. Bars are drawn on a common 0-88% scale.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey, 2023 Characteristics of Business Owners (table AB2300CSCBO), question O10, all sectors, United States, downloaded from www2.census.gov on September 20, 2026. Covers owners of respondent employer firms; owners could rate every reason independently, so the shares do not sum to 100% across reasons.
The necessity entrepreneur is real, but they are one owner in fifteen — not the story of American small business.
Men and women give different top answers
Split the same question by the sex of the owner and the ranking does not just shift, it reorders. For women the single most important reason is balance work and family at 60.1% — ahead of income. For men it is wanted to be my own boss at 65.1%, with balancing work and family 11.3% points further down their list. Of the eleven reasons, 11 show a gap between women and men larger than twice the combined standard error, so this is a real pattern rather than survey noise.
Ordered by the size of the women-minus-men gap, widest at the top. Based on 1,337,149 women owners and 2,862,745 men. Both sides share a 0-70% scale.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey, 2023 Characteristics of Business Owners (table AB2300CSCBO), question O10, all sectors, United States, downloaded from www2.census.gov on September 20, 2026. Covers owners of respondent employer firms; owners could rate every reason independently, so the shares do not sum to 100% across reasons.
What this is actually useful for
Two things. First, if you run a business and the reason you started has quietly stopped being true — you wanted control and now the calendar owns you, you wanted flexibility and now you cannot take a week off — that is not a personal failing, it is the single most common way this goes wrong, and it is measurable against what you said you wanted. Second, if you employ people or sell to owners, the motive mix is not what the pitch decks assume. Income matters enormously, but it does not matter more than being your own boss, and for a large share of owners the deciding factor is whether the business lets them run their own life.
Only four of the eleven reasons clear 50%. Three of them — being your own boss, balancing work and family, and flexible hours — are about control over your own time rather than about money.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey, 2023 Characteristics of Business Owners (table AB2300CSCBO), question O10, all sectors, United States, downloaded from www2.census.gov on September 20, 2026. Covers owners of respondent employer firms; owners could rate every reason independently, so the shares do not sum to 100% across reasons.
Three limits. This is employer firms only: the roughly 28 million US businesses with no payroll are outside the survey, and their motive mix may well differ. Owners rated each reason independently, so nothing here says which reason mattered most to any individual — only how often each was rated highly across the population. And 36,625 owners did not answer the question at all, which is small against the 4.2 million who did but is not zero. The sex comparison is reported as the survey collects it, as a two-category owner characteristic.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do people start their own businesses?
In the Census Bureau's 2023 Annual Business Survey, 62.1% of US employer-firm owners said greater income was a very important reason for owning their business and 61.5% said wanted to be my own boss was. Those two are statistically tied at the top. Balancing work and family was third at 55.8%.
Do most people start a business because they cannot find a job?
No. Only 6.8% of owners rated “couldn't find a job” a very important reason, and 77.8% said it was not important at all — the lowest-rated of the eleven reasons the survey asks about.
What is the most important reason women give for owning a business?
Balance work and family, at 60.1% calling it very important — ahead of greater income. For men the top answer is wanted to be my own boss at 65.1%.
Is money the main reason people own a business?
It is tied for the main reason, not clear of it. Greater income was rated very important by 62.1% of owners and wanted to be my own boss by 61.5% — a gap of 0.6 points against standard errors of 0.3 and 0.5, which is too close to separate.
Where does this data come from?
The Annual Business Survey, run by the U.S. Census Bureau with the National Science Foundation. The 2023 Characteristics of Business Owners table covers 4,199,894 owners of employer firms who answered the question on reasons for owning. It does not cover businesses without employees.
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.