Hispanic small business owners are confident about their 2019 business outlook, with strong majorities planning for increased revenue, growth and expansion – eclipsing their non-Hispanic counterparts by double-digits on all indicators. According to the third annual Bank of America Hispanic Small Business Owner Spotlight, 79 percent of Hispanic business owners plan to grow their business over the next five years, 24 percentage points higher than non-Hispanic entrepreneurs (55 percent).
Additionally, when asked about their outlook for next 12 months:
- 87 percent plan to expand (vs. 67 percent of non-Hispanic entrepreneurs).
- 74 percent anticipate their revenue will increase (vs. 57 percent of non-Hispanic entrepreneurs).
- 51 percent plan to hire (vs. 26 percent of non-Hispanic entrepreneurs).
“Consistent with years prior, Hispanic small business owners are embracing a significantly more confident outlook toward growth compared to their non-Hispanic counterparts,” said Elizabeth Romero, Small Business Central Division executive, Bank of America. “This optimism, however, does not come without challenges. As Hispanic entrepreneurs look to augment growth plans by hiring, today’s competitive job market has created an especially difficult environment to attract and retain talent.”
With business growing beyond expectations, Hispanics credit
employees, family and community
More Hispanic entrepreneurs say
their business has grown beyond what they originally envisioned when
compared to non-Hispanics (34 percent vs. 25 percent). They credit
employees, family and community as their primary sources of support and
motivation in that success. More Hispanic entrepreneurs also see their
businesses as multi-generational assets, with more than one-third
intending to pass their business onto their children, compared to less
than one-quarter of non-Hispanics.
- Employees, community drive confidence: 91 percent say their employees give them confidence they can achieve their goals, while 86 percent are inspired to succeed by their community (compared to 86 percent and 69 percent, respectively, for non-Hispanics).
- Power of personal networks: 86 percent say their supportive personal network helped drive their business success (compared to 76 percent of non-Hispanics).
- A multi-generational investment: 38 percent hope to pass their business on to their children (compared to 23 percent of non-Hispanics).
- Community impact opportunity: 22 percent said they became a business owner in order to make a difference in their community (compared to 17 percent of non-Hispanics).
Challenging labor market increases competition for talent
More
than half of Hispanic entrepreneurs look to hire in 2019 – double the
rate of non-Hispanic business owners. One potential obstacle, however,
is finding qualified talent to fill these roles, with 58 percent of
Hispanic entrepreneurs who sought to hire in 2018 reporting the
ultra-competitive job market has impacted their ability to hire. As more
than half of Hispanic business owners look to hire, they are also more
likely than their non-Hispanic peers to report that retaining and hiring
employees has become a significant challenge.
- In the last year, 45 percent of Hispanic entrepreneurs experienced turnover (vs. 24 percent of non-Hispanic entrepreneurs).
- Of Hispanic business owners who sought to hire in the last year, 45 percent say it takes three months or more to fill a position (vs. 40 percent of non-Hispanic entrepreneurs).
- 58 percent say the tight labor market had a direct impact (vs. 49 percent of non-Hispanic business owners).
Shifting hiring strategies with social media and deal sweeteners
Seventy
percent of Hispanic entrepreneurs say they have refined their hiring and
recruiting approach to better compete in this ultra-competitive job
market (vs. 55 percent of non-Hispanic business owners), including:
- More actively using social media to find and recruit talent (32 percent vs. 23 percent of non-Hispanic business owners).
- Shifting to a more flexible culture (27 percent vs. 25 percent of non-Hispanic business owners).
- Offering higher salaries (26 percent vs. 17 percent of non-Hispanic business owners).
For a complete, in-depth look at the insights of the nation’s Hispanic small business owners, read the full 2019 Bank of America Hispanic Small Business Owner Spotlight (also available in Spanish).
Bank of America Hispanic Business Owner Spotlight
GfK Social and
Strategic Research conducted the Bank of America Hispanic Business Owner
Spotlight survey between August 30 and October 16, 2018 using a
pre-recruited online sample of Hispanic and Non-Hispanic small business
owners. GfK contacted a national sample of 1,067 small business owners
in the United States with annual revenue between $100,000 and $4,999,999
and employing between two and 99 employees, as well as 303 interviews
among Hispanic small business owners. The final results were weighted to
national benchmark standards for size, revenue, and region, and, for the
Hispanic augment, whether the respondents were primarily
English-speaking or Spanish-speaking.
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Contacts:
Don Vecchiarello, Bank of America,
1.980.387.4899
don.vecchiarello@bankofamerica.com