The future of entrepreneurship can be uncertain, but there are always remarkable opportunities to continue evolving the way business owners create, buy, and sell products.
In this piece, I’ll dive into research from our 2024 State of Entrepreneurship Survey to keep you informed on up-to-date entrepreneurship statistics. If you’re looking for specific information, use the table of contents and jump to what you need.
Table of Contents
- General Entrepreneur Stats
- Entrepreneur Demographics
- Minority Entrepreneur Statistics
- Entrepreneurs and Technology Stats
- Entrepreneur Income Statistics
- Entrepreneur Financial Statistics
- How Entrepreneurs Work Statistics
- Previous Interesting Facts About Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship Trends Report
Unlock the future of entrepreneurship with this free report from 探花精选 and The Hustle.
- 92% of entrepreneurs have no regrets about starting their business.
- 61% find customers through powerful word-of-mouth referrals.
- 37% of entrepreneurs are targeting higher ARR in the next year.
- And more trends!
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Stats About Entrepreneurship
How many entrepreneurs are there in the US?
There are approximately Compared to the working population, they account for 16% of the workforce.
What percentage of entrepreneurs have college degrees?
According to , the percentage of entrepreneurs that have pursued upper education is as follows:
- 44% of entrepreneurs have a bachelor's degree.
- 27% of entrepreneurs have a master's degree.
- 15% of entrepreneurs have a High School Diploma/GED.
- 11% of entrepreneurs have an associate’s degree.
- 4% have a doctorate degree.
While it‘s a great asset, formal education isn’t the only way to become a business owner, as a quarter of entrepreneurs only have high school diplomas.
- Entrepreneurship rates have been in the United States for the past 19 years.
- There were in the U.S. in May 2024 alone.
- of small businesses in the US are profitable.
- Small businesses in the U.S. employ .
Let's take a look at some general entrepreneur facts.
General Entrepreneur Stats
- 80% of entrepreneurs responding to our survey run 1+ business full time. 13% juggle their own business alongside a full-time job.
- 21% of entrepreneurs started their own business because they were passionate about a business idea.
- 70% of entrepreneurs said they started their own business because they wanted a career or lifestyle change.
- 45% of people became entrepreneurs because they wanted to be their own boss or escape the 9-5.
- Only about 8% of entrepreneurs have ever regretted starting a business.
- Entrepreneurs at every business phase say their most common challenge is accessing funding.
- 89% of entrepreneurs believe there is stigma around mental health in the business community, with 27% saying that, while stigma exists, it is getting better.
- Retail and food are for small business owners.
- of entrepreneurs plan to increase their staff in 2024.
- Referrals from existing employees is the number one hiring tactic used by entrepreneurs.
- This year, entrepreneurs are most excited about growing their customer base, team, and brand awareness.
- of respondents plan to hire employees with AI experience in the next year.
- of startup founders say AI positively impacts employee productivity. Entrepreneurship Process Statistics
- Entrepreneurs told us that social media is their top marketing channel for growth, followed by word of mouth and website/SEO blogs.
- actively invest in social media marketing.
- SEO is the third-most used marketing channel among entrepreneurs.
- Eight solopreneurs say they interact with or find customers online, and only 22% say they work with customers or clients in person only.
- of solopreneurs say digital technology (like e-commerce and remote work) made it possible to launch their business.
- Entrepreneurs say most of their customers/leads come from word-of-mouth referrals (62%).
Entrepreneur Demographics
- The average U.S. entrepreneur is , four years younger than the 2022 study.
- Millennial business owners have risen since 2023.
- Baby Boomers have experienced a drop in entrepreneurship representation since last year.
- More Gen Zers express interest in starting a business this year than any other generation. (, 2023)
- Most Gen Z entrepreneurs who own a business or have a side hustle say they’re the first in their family to do so.
- Despite Gen Z’s entrepreneurial spirit, most only somewhat agree that they have the same level of business/employment opportunities as their parents' generation.
- American businesses are veteran-owned.
Entrepreneurship Trends Report
Unlock the future of entrepreneurship with this free report from 探花精选 and The Hustle.
- 92% of entrepreneurs have no regrets about starting their business.
- 61% find customers through powerful word-of-mouth referrals.
- 37% of entrepreneurs are targeting higher ARR in the next year.
- And more trends!
Download Free
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You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.
Minority Entrepreneurship Statistics
- Most underrepresented entrepreneurs would rate the current opportunities available to their primary business venture as “good” (). Just 26% would rate opportunities as excellent.
- The minority entrepreneurs face are financial, growing and scaling, and marketing and generating brand awareness.
- of entrepreneurs in the U.S. are women.
- of all new microbusinesses.
- Women make up of black entrepreneurs.
- small business owners in the U.S. identify as people of color.
- Women represent high-growth entrepreneurs globally.
Entrepreneurs and Technology Stats
- Entrepreneurs reported that their top three tools are payment processing tools (53%), messaging and communication tools (43%), and marketing tools (40%).
- of founders surveyed think AI will help them grow.
- of startup founders feel AI has helped them reach qualified prospects.
- The most popular use cases for AI in customer marketing and segmentation are customer behavior forecasting () and algorithms that help with personalized content recommendations (23%).
- the biggest benefit of using AI in GTM strategies is increased customer conversion rates.
![graph displaying the benefits of entrepreneurs get from using AI in gtm strategy]](https://www.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/gtm%20AI%20benefits.webp?width=499&height=548&name=gtm%20AI%20benefits.webp)
Entrepreneur Income Statistics
- have a salary lower than $100,000, and 30% do not pay themselves a salary at all.
- The average CEO makes an annual salary of .
- The average base salary of small business owners is .
- Most solopreneurs to be about $100,000 - 249,999.
- It took an average of 1-2 years for our entrepreneurship survey respondents business’ to become profitable.
- A of small business owners say they’ll pay themselves less than six figures this year.
- of small business owners say they’re on track to meet their earnings goals this year.
- of U.S. side hustlers say they’ll become full-time business owners when they earn $50k - $100k.
- Entrepreneurs say that their top mental health stressor is financial concerns.
Entrepreneur Financial Statistics
- of small business owners say owning a business has helped them meet their personal financial goals.
- The average amount of startup capital needed by a small business owner is .
- 18% of small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs get financing from friends and family.
- Most entrepreneurs say that funding from their business (aside from customer revenue) comes from their personal funds (75%). Loans are the second most common source, followed by income from another job or venture.
- of solopreneurs say they have used a credit card to make purchases for their business or as a source of fast funding.
- say their businesses are profitable.
- It took an average of 1-2 years for our entrepreneurship survey respondents business’ to become profitable.
- 37% of entrepreneurs believe they’ll see higher sales and ARR this year.
- $100k - $500k is the hardest ARR range to hit.
- 54% of our survey respondents struggle with earning and maintaining finances/money. 22% struggle with accessing funding, 18% struggle with budgeting, and 13% struggle with earning recurring revenue.
- are raising funds for business and entrepreneurship ventures.
How Entrepreneurs Work Statistics
- A majority of solopreneurs y at home.
- of American entrepreneurs start their business at home.
- 64. According to social entrepreneurs, in making remote work sustainable are the introduction of digital collaboration platforms (39%) and flexibility in how work gets done (36%).
- For social entrepreneurs, the most critical action to transform work is to build an organizational culture that promotes growth ().
- and take more time off but have higher stress levels.
- of small businesses offer employee benefits.
- The overwhelming majority of business owners () self-reported as either somewhat happy or very happy.
Previous Interesting Facts About Entrepreneurs
- of small business owners who started business during or after the COVID-19 pandemic say they did so because of inflation.
- In 2023, of small business owners still felt that the pandemic was impacting their business.
- In 2022, report working more than 40 hours per week, with 19% working more than 60 hours per week.
- In 2023, Quickbooks predicted that 23% of small businesses starting in the year would have 100% remote workforces and that 87% of small businesses started would be primarily online.
- More than half of small businesses () are “very concerned" about inflation.
- of small businesses plan to increase their prices in 2022.
- Increasing online sales is the priority for small businesses in 2022.
- California had the of entrepreneurs in the US in 2020.
- have made workplace changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- of entrepreneurs say hiring in 2022 was “very difficult.” Only 1% of entrepreneurs say it was “very easy.”
Over To You
The 探花精选 Blog team continues to run surveys to learn more about the state of entrepreneurship, and we’ll continue to share relevant data as we get our results.
Entrepreneurship Trends Report
Unlock the future of entrepreneurship with this free report from 探花精选 and The Hustle.
- 92% of entrepreneurs have no regrets about starting their business.
- 61% find customers through powerful word-of-mouth referrals.
- 37% of entrepreneurs are targeting higher ARR in the next year.
- And more trends!
Download Free
All fields are required.
You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.
Topics:
Entrepreneurship
![13 Ways AI Can Benefit Your Business [+ New Data and Gen AI Prompts]](https://www.hubspot.com/hubfs/benefits-of-business-in-ai-1-20241113-8880073.webp)
