Most Microbusiness Entreprenuers Using Personal Savings to Stay Afloat

As new and alternative funding sources target small businesses and increasingly penetrate the U.S. market, less than three percent of U.S. microbusiness owners report using government loans (2.7%), small business loans (2.4%) or crowd-funding (1.9%) to fund their business, according to the Sam’s Club/Gallup Microbusiness Tracker.

More than 60 percent of new microbusiness owners rely on non-retirement, personal savings as the lead source of funding for their businesses, four in ten owners (43.4%) use credit cards and one in five (22%) use money from friends and family. The quarterly survey of 1,004 U.S. firms with five or fewer workers also found U.S. microbusinesses started in the past year are 30 percent more likely to use personal savings (79.1%) to maintain their business than mature businesses (50.5%).