Business owners don?t see ventures as risky, study reports

A successful small business owner has a certain set of characteristics - a love of challenge, persistence and flexibility. However, a new study suggests that entrepreneurs may not be as financially risky as assumed.

Research by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has revealed that while business owners are more likely to take financial risks than non-business owners, they are generally more conservative when borrowing and saving.

When investing for retirement, business owners seem to be more future-oriented, with 45 percent of entrepreneurs saying that it was important to save for retirement and only 32 percent of non-business owners saying the same thing .

However, business owners are just as likely as their counterparts to invest in risky financial investments. Robert E. Litan, vice president of research and policy at the foundation, said that considering the study’s results, the best practices to encourage entrepreneurship include those that “allow entrepreneurs to determine their profitability, including ... implementing less burdensome tax and regulation requirements.”

Accordingly, Entrepreneur magazine writes that not all entrepreneurs are fierce risk-takers. In fact, the magazine lists at least five different personalities, which range from the salesperson to the diplomat.