Entrepreneurs top satisfaction survey.
We've long supposed that small-business owners are more
satisfied with their work than their corporate executive
counterparts, but a recent study seems to prove it. Both
small-business owners and top-level executives at large
corporations agreed overwhelmingly that small-business owners reap
more business satisfaction, according to a survey conducted by
The Wall Street Journal and Murrysville, Pennsylvania-based
research firm Cicco and Associates Inc.
"We figured the small-business owners would be pretty
happy," says Tom Robinson, market research director for The
Wall Street Journal. "But the missing ingredient was how
the big-business guys would react. We were surprised by the number
who think the grass is greener on the other side."
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More than 62 percent of corporate executives surveyed felt
small-business owners boasted "the more satisfying business
experience"--a number that carries even more weight
considering the position of these respondents. "You'd
expect the number to be fairly high among people on a midmanagement
level," says Robinson. "But [our respondents were] people
with top management titles at large companies, so the assumption is
that [they] are the ones who are paid well and have a lot of
responsibility."
Given that fact, the survey results "may suggest a secret
desire on the part of a lot of executives to run their own
shop," says Robinson. "I don't know if the head-line
can read `Corporate America Is Not Happy,' but [this survey] is
certainly an indicator."
Robinson points out that the survey did not ask corporate
executives whether they had any firsthand experience in a small
business or whether their answers were based purely on perception.
Regardless, those who do have firsthand experience with
entrepreneurship are even more enthusiastic: Almost 80 percent of
the small-business owners surveyed were confident that their
satisfaction levels were superior. --J.C.
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