One of the most consistent things I hear from founders is some version of: “The business is doing well, so why don’t I feel like I’m winning?”

That question is critical. Because on every headline measure, they are winning. In 2025, the U.S. recorded approximately 5.7 million business applications, a new annual record. This rise was driven by AI, with 60% of new business owners saying they used it to help launch their business that year, double the rate from 12 months earlier.

Small businesses generate trillions in economic activity. They create jobs. They power entire communities. And yet the owner, the person who took the real risk, is asking: Was it really worth it?

We’ve seen this tension before, and speaking from experience, I have felt it. I think about my older sister Nicky, an optometrist who owned a practice in a shopping mall. She worked day and night to make her business succeed, but that stress never fully translated into her bank account. She had the company P&L, but not a framework for understanding whether she was thriving financially or personally.

That gap is what’s hiding in plain sight in the American small business economy right now.

The missing measurement

We already measure revenue, job creation, and GDP contribution. These make up the scorecard. And by that scorecard, entrepreneurship looks healthy. But we don’t measure whether the owner is actually earning a living wage.

Data from Xero’s payroll partner Gusto found that in 2025, the median small business owner paid themselves $4,800 per month, about $57,600 per year, in cash wages.

The time investment is even starker. Most small business owners work at least 50 hours a week. Sixty percent work six or more days every week. And our research at Xero shows that owners spend nearly 22 hours a month on finance alone—just tracking and managing money. Success at the business level doesn’t tell you whether success is sustainable for the person living it.

There’s a name for this gap. I call it the Ownership Gap. The hidden side of the small business economy that measures what owners actually get back from everything they put in.

What success looks like

Income matters, obviously. But so do things we don’t track, such as financial resilience, control over your time, access to capital when you need it, or peace of mind when you’ve had a tough month. The confidence that building this business is actually creating a better future for you as the owner, not just for the company’s P&L.

Right now, we ask if the business is working. We rarely ask if business ownership is working for the owner.

This extends to personal wellbeing too. There is a difference between “my business grew” and “my life improved.” A difference between a dream realized and a dream worth realizing. Business success should improve the owner’s life, not quietly consume it.

Making owner experiences visible

If business success should be measured by more than growth alone, we need to make the owner’s experience part of the conversation. That starts with listening to owners, understanding the realities they face and the changes they have made in how they run, measure and experience their businesses.

Those stories can spark a broader conversation about whether business growth is creating greater opportunity for the people behind it. A healthier business should be measured by what it produces and what it gives back to the person who built it.

Who needs to come along on the journey

Owners cannot drive this change alone. Policymakers, economists, and investors must rethink how they make decisions.

When all we measure is business output, we optimize for growth without asking whether that growth is sustainable for the people creating it. We celebrate record business formation without asking what kind of livelihoods those businesses actually create. We see higher small business revenue and assume owners are doing better—when in reality, they might be working harder for the same return or lesser return.

This shapes lending decisions. It shapes the support programs we fund. It shapes how we think about entrepreneurship itself.

The fix isn’t complicated. It’s not about replacing the metrics we already use. It’s about completing the picture. Adding owner health metrics alongside business health as a measure of entrepreneurial success.

This starts by asking different questions. When business formation rises, ask what kinds of income those businesses are generating. When small business sales grow, ask whether owners have greater financial resilience. Create space for data that disaggregates by business type and owner circumstances. Build frameworks that let business owners connect what their business is earning to what they’re actually taking home.

Then make that data visible with the wider business community. Right now, we’re flying blind on owner outcomes. We can see the business is thriving. We can’t see if the engine underneath is actually healthy.

The path forward

I’ve always believed that collective growth and individual reward go hand in hand. We need to help small business owners globally understand what ownership actually delivers. Not just in revenue, but in resilience, security, time, and wellbeing. This starts with changing what we measure. Owners should look beyond revenue and growth to what their businesses return to them personally as well.

For policymakers, business leaders and economists, the ask is to broaden the definition of a healthy small-business economy beyond output and revenue. Put owners at the center of research, public debate and policy, and measure whether business success is improving their lives.

In short, owners will help rewrite the scorecard. The wider ecosystem needs to start using it.

We have a record number of people building businesses in different countries around the world. In this new Owner Economy, let’s make sure we’re actually measuring whether it’s working out for them. Because a healthy small business economy isn’t one where the business thrives and the owner burns out. It’s one where both succeed together over the short, medium and long term by measuring all the metrics that matter.

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