Yahoo! Poll Shows Two Thirds of Americans Have Entrepreneurial Aspirations; More Baby Boomers Say They Are 'Never Too Old' to Start a Business; Support Remains High for 'Being Your Own Boss' and for the Internet as Key to Small Business Success

Business Wire, April 12, 2006

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- In the second annual Yahoo! survey measuring small business aspirations of the general population, a growing number of baby boomers(a) said they would never be too old to launch a business. In addition, two thirds of American adults (66%) said that they have considered starting their own businesses (versus 72% last year), according to the new survey commissioned by Yahoo! Small Business (http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com) and conducted by Harris Interactive(R).

Baby boomer-aged survey respondents indicated a significant increase in entrepreneurial aspirations. When asked, "At what age do you think it would be too late to start you own business?," 70% of respondents age 45-54 and 72% of those age 55 and above chose the response, "I will never be too old to start my own business." That's a substantial increase compared to last year's survey, when 54% of those age 45-54 chose the "never too old" response, and 58% of those age 55 and above chose the same response. Across all age groups, respondents choosing "never too old" increased to 60% this year, versus 47% in the 2005 survey.

Other key findings from the survey include:

--55% of respondents chose "own my own business" as the kind of work they would prefer to do late in life. Other choices included: 42% volunteer work/public service; 29% consulting; 20% teaching, and less than 15% for running for political office, retail/customer service, corporate officer, and sales.

--37% of those who said they had thought about launching their own businesses but haven't yet planned to do so within one to five years

--75% of U.S. adults who go online said that the Internet has made it easier to start a small business.

--92% of U.S. adults who go online said it was important for a new small business to have an Internet presence.

"The vast majority of people, regardless of age, have entrepreneurial aspirations, and they recognize the power of the Internet in making it easier for them to act on those aspirations and launch small businesses," said Rich Riley, vice president of small business services at Yahoo!, the division of Yahoo! that powers more than 35,000 online stores, and hosts Web sites for hundreds of thousands of businesses. "These days the Internet is where people are going to research and locate the products and services they need, which is why we believe every small business should have a website."

And it's not just the money!

Consistent with last year's survey, money is not the primary motivation for aspiring entrepreneurs -- only 3% said getting rich was the main reason they wanted to start a business (6% indicated this in 2005). Instead, nearly a third (31%) said that doing work that they really love was the main reason for launching a business. The second most popular reason, selected by 22% of respondents, was "to be my own boss." Less than a fifth (17%) chose "to make more money."

The nationwide survey of more than 2,100 U.S. adults is being released in conjunction with National Small Business Week April 9-15. The survey, conducted four weeks ago, measured sentiment among the general population about aspirations for owning a small business and the role of the Internet in enabling the start up of small businesses.

Methodology for 2006 Survey

Harris Interactive(R) fielded the study on behalf of Yahoo! Small Business from March 20-22, 2006 via its QuickQuery(SM) online omnibus, interviewing a nationwide sample of 2,123 U.S. adults aged 18 and over, of whom 1,090 have thought about starting their own business but haven't yet. Data were weighted to be representative of the total U.S. adult population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity, and propensity to be online. Select data were weighted to be representative of the total U.S. adult online population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity, and amount of time spent online. In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Sampling error for the following sub-sample results: U.S. adults who have thought about starting their own business but haven't (1,090) men (1,004) and women (1,119) is higher and varies. This online sample is not a probability sample.

Methodology for 2005 Survey

Harris Interactive(R) fielded the study on behalf of Yahoo! Small Business from April 1-5, 2005 via its QuickQuery(SM) online omnibus, interviewing a nationwide sample of 2,290 U.S. adults aged 18 and over, of whom 1,218 have thought about starting their own business but haven't yet. Data were weighted to be representative of the total U.S. adult population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity, and propensity to be online. Select data were weighted to be representative of the total U.S. adult online population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity, and amount of time spent online. Though this online sample is not a probability sample, in theory, with a probability sample of this size, Harris Interactive estimates with 95 percent certainty that the results for the overall sample have a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Sampling error for the following sub-sample results: those who have thought about starting their own business but haven't yet (1,218), men (1,073) and women (1,217) is higher and varies. This online sample is not a probability sample.