A survey by BizBuySell of small business owners and buyers paints a snapshot of their demographics and motivations. BizBuySell, an online business-for-sale marketplace, surveyed 2,300 small-business owners and buyers for its study.

The survey found that most small-business owners (54 percent) have previous business ownership experience, and most (68 percent) do not plan on selling their businesses in the next two years. Just under half (45 percent) of business buyers have previously owned a business.

There is a general alignment between small-business owners and buyers on the ability to protect internal data, with 60 percent and 57 percent, respectively, saying that small businesses as a whole are not equipped to do so. Furthermore, 37 percent of current business owners are concerned with how they store and handle customer data.

Small-business ownership appears to run in the family, with most small-business owners (59 percent) having parents and grandparents who owned a business. Among buyers, 49 percent have parents or grandparents who owned a business.

Small businesses comprise 99.9 percent of all firms in the U.S., according to 2017 data, half of the firms are home-based and one in five firms are family owned. If your promotional products company is targeting small businesses as new clients, look for ways to help them survive. Only about 50 percent of small businesses survive five years or longer; only one-third survive for 10 years or more.

For more details from BizBuySell’s survey, click here.