OnDeck Survey Reveals the Long Hours, Challenging Days of the American Small Business

NEW YORK, August 23, 2016 — OnDeck® (NYSE: ONDK), the leader in online lending for small business, today launched a national initiative to help small business owners overcome one of their most formidable challenges – time management. The first-of-its-kind initiative is in response to OnDeck’s latest Main Street Pulse Report, a quarterly study of small business trends, which found that many small business owners are more pressed for time than ever before, with a whopping 86 percent of those surveyed saying that “one needs to be exceptional at time management to excel as a small business owner.”

The results from OnDeck’s recent Main Street Pulse Report point to a challenging reality for small businesses. Half of the survey respondents agreed that: “As a business owner, work/life balance is an illusion,” with even more – 61 percent – saying that “they constantly feel like they are racing against the clock.” When asked, “How many hours per week would you need to successfully run your business?” those surveyed felt they would need 69 hours on average.

Click here to view an infographic detailing the time challenges of small businesses

In addition to applying for credit, other time-intensive parts of a small business owner’s day as identified by a large number of respondents include customer service (42 percent), followed by marketing (41 percent), accounting (33 percent) and people/HR (31 percent). So, it’s no surprise that time management skills are of paramount importance to them.

“Our research shows that small business owners are pressed for time and need to find ways to free up more time in their day,” said Andrea Gellert, chief marketing officer, OnDeck. “To help hardworking small business owners be more efficient, we’ll be unveiling a host of time management tools. We’re committed to helping small businesses obtain efficient access to capital so they can spend time on the things most important to them.”

According to a study from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, small business owners spend an average of 33 hours searching and applying for a traditional bank loan. OnDeck’s latest Main Street Pulse Report also examined how business owners value their time and what they would do instead if they could bypass the 33 hours spent buried in loan paperwork. Surprisingly, taking a vacation this summer wasn’t their first choice. Rather, the most respondents, roughly 43 percent, said they would choose to take those theoretical hours back and spend quality time with family and friends.

To view a video of what else small business owners could do with 33 hours of time back, visit OnDeck’s YouTube page.

The 2016 Small Business Time Management Initiative launches today with valuable advice that can help business owners overcome the challenges of running and growing a business, including:

Time Management Series
OnDeck will provide time management tips to streamline common time-intensive areas of running a business, including marketing, customer service and people operations. The advice, which also includes work/life balance best practices, comes from OnDeck executives, SCORE President David Bobbitt, small business owners and other small business experts. SCORE is a non-profit organization comprised of 11,000+ volunteer mentors who provide free and confidential small business mentoring and advice.

Facebook Live Chat: 7 Ways Small Business Owners Can Be More Efficient Marketers
OnDeck’s small business expert Ty Kiisel will host a Facebook Live chat to share time management tips and best practices for being a more efficient marketer. To participate, tune in to OnDeck’s Facebook page at Facebook.com/OnDeckCapital on Thursday, September 1 at 2 p.m. EDT.

Quickbooks Online Essentials Contest: Streamline Your Accounting
OnDeck is hosting a contest for small business owners on their Facebook page to win a year’s subscription to Quickbooks Online Essentials. One lucky business owner will be able to more efficiently track income and expenses, create estimates and invoices, manage and pay bills, generate sales and profit reports, and more. Visit Facebook.com/OnDeckCapital to enter. The contest launches today and will run through August 31, 2016. A winner will be notified the week of September 6, 2016.

As the leading online small business lender, OnDeck has delivered over $5 billion to more than 50,000 customers in 700 different industries across the United States, Canada and Australia.

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OnDeck Survey Methodology
The OnDeck Main Street Pulse Report was conducted online by Lucid Market Research from June 27 to July 1, using a national sample from the Lucid panel of small business owners. The 348 respondents surveyed come from a wide range of industries and geographies. To learn more, visit: www.luc.id.

About OnDeck
OnDeck (NYSE: ONDK) is the leader in online small business lending. Since 2007, the Company has powered Main Street’s growth through advanced lending technology and a constant dedication to customer service. OnDeck’s proprietary credit scoring system – the OnDeck Score® – leverages advanced analytics, enabling OnDeck to make real-time lending decisions and deliver capital to small businesses in as little as 24 hours. OnDeck offers business owners a complete financing solution, including the online lending industry’s widest range of term loans and lines of credit. To date, the Company has deployed over $5 billion to more than 50,000 customers in 700 different industries across the United States, Canada and Australia. OnDeck has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and operates the educational small business financing website www.businessloans.com. For more information, please visit www.ondeck.com.