Who Will Own Main Street in 2035? The Coming Shift in American Business Ownership

Walk down almost any Main Street in America and look at the businesses around you.

The construction company that has operated for three decades. The dental practice where generations of families have gone for care. The independent doctor’s office. The real estate brokerage whose agents seem to know everyone in town. The law firm with a founding partner whose name is still on the front door.

Ten years from now, many of those businesses may still be there.

But the people who own them could be very different.

Across several major American industries, demographic and economic forces are converging. Business owners are aging. Younger professionals are approaching ownership differently. Women have become a major force in some professions while remaining underrepresented in ownership or leadership in others. Hispanic entrepreneurs have established a particularly strong presence in industries such as construction. Independent physician practices are becoming less common. And established businesses eventually have to confront a question that every entrepreneur faces sooner or later:

Who takes over when the owner is ready to leave?

There is no single demographic profile of the American business owner, and reliable owner-level data varies considerably from industry to industry.

But where strong data does exist, it points toward an important conclusion:

Main Street isn’t simply getting older. It may be preparing to change hands.

America Is Approaching a Business Ownership Transition

Business succession rarely attracts the attention given to startups.

Entrepreneurship is usually portrayed as creation: someone has an idea, starts a company, hires employees, finds customers, and grows.

But businesses also have life cycles.

A company that survives for 20, 30, or 40 years eventually reaches a point when its founder or long-term owner has to decide what happens next.

The owner might sell to another entrepreneur.

A child may take over.

Employees or partners may buy the company.

A competitor may acquire it.

A larger corporation may consolidate it into a broader organization.

Or the business may simply close.

That decision matters far beyond the owner.

An established small business can represent jobs, supplier relationships, customer relationships, local knowledge, equipment, intellectual property, reputation, and decades of accumulated experience.

When ownership changes, all of those things can be affected.

And in some American industries, the demographic pressure behind those decisions is becoming difficult to ignore.

Construction Offers One of the Clearest Examples

Construction has some of the strongest available owner-demographic data.

According to U.S. Census Bureau Annual Business Survey data compiled by CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training, 50.4% of construction business owners are age 55 or older.

The breakdown is striking:

• 18.9% are age 65 or older
• 31.5% are ages 55–64
• 25.2% are ages 45–54
• 24.4% are under 45

That means roughly three-quarters of construction business owners are at least 45.

This does not mean a mass retirement will happen on a particular date. Business owners don’t automatically stop working at 65, and many contractors continue operating well beyond traditional retirement age.

But every privately owned construction business eventually needs a succession plan.

That creates a major question for the next decade:

Who will own America’s contracting companies after today’s owners?

The answer could include family members, employees, competitors, younger contractors, Hispanic entrepreneurs, women entering construction ownership, and entrepreneurs who choose to acquire existing companies instead of starting from scratch.

Construction may offer a preview of a much broader shift in American business ownership.

The Next Entrepreneur May Be a Business Buyer

For much of modern business culture, entrepreneurship has been synonymous with starting something new.

But there is another route:

Buy something that already works.

Imagine two aspiring entrepreneurs.

One starts a construction company from zero. The entrepreneur needs customers, employees, equipment, suppliers, licenses, systems, reputation, and working capital.

The other acquires an established contractor whose owner wants to retire.

That company may already have employees, customers, equipment, systems, supplier relationships, project history, and revenue.

Acquisition doesn’t eliminate risk.

The buyer can inherit liabilities, customer concentration, outdated equipment, poor processes, employee problems, or dependence on the former owner. Proper due diligence remains essential.

But the demographic transition among existing owners could create opportunities for people who never thought of themselves as “startup founders.”

The entrepreneur of the 2030s may increasingly ask:

What can I acquire and grow?

rather than only:

What can I start?

Dentistry Shows a Remarkable Ownership Divide by Age

Dentistry provides another revealing example, although the data must be interpreted differently from construction.

American Dental Association data measures the percentage of dentists within different age groups who own practices. It does not represent the age distribution of all dental practice owners.

The ownership rates nevertheless show an extraordinary age divide.

Only 8.8% of dentists under age 30 own their practice.

Among dentists ages 55–64, practice ownership rises to 89.7%.

Among dentists age 65 and older, it reaches 93.4%.

The difference raises an obvious question.

What happens as generations with extremely high ownership rates eventually leave dentistry?

There are several possibilities.

Younger dentists could increasingly acquire practices from retiring dentists.

Family members or partners could take over.

Independent offices could merge.

Larger dental organizations could acquire practices.

Some offices could close.

The eventual outcome will help determine whether the independent dental practice remains a dominant ownership model for future generations.

Starting a Dental Practice and Buying One Are Very Different Paths

A retiring dentist may have spent decades building something that cannot be recreated simply by purchasing equipment and leasing an office.

An established dental practice can include:

• A patient base
• Experienced employees
• Equipment
• Office systems
• Referral relationships
• Local reputation
• Recurring hygiene appointments
• Practice history
• Established cash flow

That can make practice succession valuable to both generations.

The retiring dentist potentially monetizes decades of work.

The younger dentist potentially gains an operating practice rather than starting at zero.

But once again, capital becomes part of the equation.

Purchasing a business is one expense.

Operating it is another.

The new owner may need money for payroll, equipment upgrades, technology, marketing, renovations, hiring, or expansion after the transition.

Succession therefore isn’t merely about finding someone willing to take over.

The next owner also has to be financially capable of operating the business.

Medicine Is Moving in a Different Direction

Physician ownership tells a different story.

According to American Medical Association data, 54.3% of physicians age 55 and older own their practices, compared with 25.5% of physicians under 40.

At the same time, physician private-practice participation has fallen sharply.

The AMA reports that the percentage of physicians working in private practices declined from 60.1% in 2012 to 42.2% in 2024.

That represents more than an aging-owner story.

It represents a structural change in how medical practices are organized.

Independent physicians may face significant administrative, technological, staffing, reimbursement, and financial demands.

Meanwhile, hospitals, larger medical groups, corporate organizations, and other entities can offer alternatives to traditional independent practice.

The physician reaching retirement age may therefore face a different succession landscape than the contractor or dentist.

Instead of transferring an independent practice to another individual owner, consolidation may increasingly become part of the equation.

What Happens When Independent Businesses Become Part of Larger Organizations?

Consolidation is neither automatically good nor automatically bad.

Larger organizations may have greater purchasing power, administrative infrastructure, technology, access to capital, recruiting resources, and economies of scale.

Independent businesses may offer different advantages, including local ownership, entrepreneurial control, flexibility, and direct relationships between owners and customers or patients.

The important question is what happens to the overall structure of an industry as ownership shifts.

Medicine provides an especially visible example.

If younger physicians are less likely to own practices and private-practice participation continues to decline, the medical office of 2035 could look very different from the physician-owned office of previous generations.

And similar consolidation questions exist across other industries.

Real Estate Faces Its Own Generational Question

Real estate offers another interesting demographic profile.

According to the National Association of REALTORS®, the median REALTOR® age is 57.

Real estate is also notable because women represent approximately 63% of REALTORS®.

That makes the industry’s demographic story very different from construction.

But an aging professional base still creates succession questions.

A successful real estate professional may have spent decades developing:

• Client relationships
• Referral networks
• Local market expertise
• Databases
• Personal branding
• Community relationships
• Marketing systems

Those assets don’t transfer in exactly the same way as construction equipment or a dental practice.

A client’s relationship may be with the individual agent rather than the brokerage.

That means real estate succession can depend heavily on transferring trust.

As experienced agents eventually step away, teams, younger agents, family members, and brokerages may compete to preserve those relationships.

The economic value isn’t necessarily sitting in a warehouse.

It may be sitting in a contact list accumulated over 30 years.

Women Already Dominate Some Professional Fields but Not Their Leadership

Gender adds another dimension to America’s changing ownership landscape.

Real estate demonstrates how dramatically women can shape an industry: approximately 63% of REALTORS® are women.

Legal services show a more complicated picture.

Women represent approximately 41% of lawyers, yet only around 28% of law firm partners.

Those numbers describe representation and partnership rather than an exact nationwide distribution of law firm ownership, so they should not be treated as identical measures.

But the gap raises an important question:

As the professional workforce changes, how quickly does ownership and leadership change with it?

Participation doesn’t automatically translate into control of businesses.

The next transformation of Main Street may therefore involve not only younger owners but different pathways to partnership, entrepreneurship, and ownership for women.

Construction Shows the Opposite Gender Extreme

Construction remains overwhelmingly male-owned.

Census Bureau data compiled by CPWR indicates that 85.3% of construction businesses are male-owned, compared with 55.9% across all industries.

That creates one of the largest contrasts in the industries examined here.

Real estate has a workforce heavily represented by women.

Construction business ownership remains overwhelmingly male.

Law has substantially increased female participation while maintaining a significant partnership gap.

Medicine and dentistry are experiencing their own demographic transitions.

There isn’t one American ownership story.

There are several happening simultaneously.

Hispanic Entrepreneurs Could Play a Major Role in Construction’s Next Chapter

Construction also stands out for another reason.

Approximately 24.2% of construction businesses are Hispanic-owned, compared with 15.4% across all industries, according to Census Bureau data compiled by CPWR.

That means Hispanic ownership has an especially significant presence in construction.

The industry’s aging ownership base makes that statistic even more interesting.

It raises a forward-looking question:

Could growing Hispanic entrepreneurship become one part of construction’s succession story?

The available numbers alone do not prove that Hispanic entrepreneurs will disproportionately acquire businesses from retiring owners.

That distinction matters.

But the combination of substantial Hispanic ownership and an older overall construction ownership base deserves attention.

Some future owners will start new companies.

Others may take over family businesses.

Experienced employees may buy companies from retiring employers.

Existing Hispanic-owned contractors may acquire competitors.

The demographic transition could therefore accelerate changes already occurring within the industry’s ownership base.

Starting From Zero May Not Be the Only American Dream

America celebrates founders.

But there is nothing inherently less entrepreneurial about taking over an existing company.

Consider a 35-year-old HVAC manager who has spent 15 years learning the trade.

The owner of the company is 65 and wants to retire.

The manager understands the employees, customers, suppliers, equipment, service area, and daily operation.

Historically, the manager might leave and start a competing HVAC business.

But another possibility exists:

Buy the company.

The retiring owner gets an exit.

The manager becomes an entrepreneur.

Employees retain continuity.

Customers continue receiving service.

The company’s knowledge and reputation remain intact.

This type of transition won’t work in every situation.

But as America’s business owners age, entrepreneurship through acquisition could become increasingly relevant.

The Family Business Is Changing Too

For generations, succession often meant handing the company to children.

That remains an important path.

But children do not always want the family business.

A contractor’s daughter may become an attorney.

A dentist’s son may work in technology.

A physician’s children may choose careers outside medicine.

And even when children enter the same industry, they may not want to operate the company their parents created.

Family succession also creates financial and emotional complexities.

What happens when one child works in the business and two do not?

How is ownership divided?

Does the next generation have the management skills necessary to operate the company?

Can the business support multiple family members?

These aren’t simply tax or estate-planning questions.

They are business-continuity questions.

For some owners, selling to an employee, partner, competitor, or outside entrepreneur may ultimately preserve the company better than keeping it within the family.

What Happens When No Buyer Appears?

Not every successful business will find a successor.

This may be one of the least discussed consequences of America’s demographic shift.

An owner can operate a profitable company for decades and still struggle to transfer it.

Perhaps too much customer goodwill depends personally on the founder.

Perhaps the financial records aren’t organized.

Maybe no employee wants the responsibility.

Perhaps family members aren’t interested.

Maybe the owner waits too long to plan.

If no successor emerges, a viable company can eventually close.

Employees find other jobs.

Competitors absorb customers.

Equipment gets sold.

Relationships disappear.

Institutional knowledge leaves the market.

A business that took 30 years to build can stop operating surprisingly quickly.

That is why succession matters before retirement becomes urgent.

The Real Battle May Be Over Who Can Afford to Become an Owner

Demographics tell us who is approaching retirement.

They don’t tell us who will be able to replace them.

That is partly a question of talent.

It is also a question of capital.

An experienced employee may be perfectly capable of operating a business but unable to fund an acquisition.

A younger dentist may want ownership but face the cost of buying and modernizing a practice.

A contractor acquiring another company may need working capital immediately after closing.

A professional-service firm may need capital to buy out a retiring partner.

An existing entrepreneur may see a once-in-a-generation acquisition opportunity but need additional liquidity to execute it.

That means access to capital could influence who gets to participate in the next era of American business ownership.

Buying the Business Is Only the Beginning

One of the biggest mistakes in thinking about succession is focusing exclusively on the purchase price.

Businesses require operating capital.

A construction company needs payroll and materials.

A dental practice may need new equipment.

A medical practice has staffing and technology costs.

A professional-service business may need marketing and hiring.

A growing company may acquire a competitor and suddenly need more cash—not less.

That’s because growth can consume working capital.

An entrepreneur who spends nearly every available dollar completing an acquisition may own the company but lack the liquidity needed to operate it successfully.

The real question is therefore not simply:

Can I afford to buy this business?

It is:

Can I afford to own and grow this business after I buy it?

Business Succession Could Reshape Local Communities

The effects of ownership transitions don’t stop at company doors.

Locally owned businesses hire people.

They buy from suppliers.

They sponsor community organizations.

They rent or own commercial property.

They develop relationships with customers.

They train employees who may eventually become entrepreneurs themselves.

When an established business successfully transfers to another owner, much of that economic activity can continue.

When it closes, the effects can spread.

That makes small-business succession more than a private financial event.

At sufficient scale, it becomes a community issue.

What Business Owners Should Be Doing Now

Owners do not need to know their exact retirement date to begin preparing for succession.

In fact, waiting until retirement is imminent may reduce their options.

Make the Business Less Dependent on the Founder

A transferable business should ideally be capable of functioning without the owner handling every customer, employee, and decision.

Developing managers and documenting systems can help.

Maintain Reliable Financial Records

A potential buyer needs to understand what the company earns, owns, owes, and requires to operate.

Clean financial reporting can make that process considerably easier.

Identify Potential Successors Early

A future owner might be a family member.

It might also be a partner, employee, competitor, or outside buyer.

Knowing the possibilities years ahead can help an owner prepare.

Understand the Company’s Value

Revenue is not the same as value.

Profitability, assets, customer concentration, management, liabilities, market conditions, contracts, recurring revenue, and owner dependence can all influence valuation.

Plan for the Transition, Not Just the Sale

A successful succession may require months or years of knowledge transfer.

Customers, employees, suppliers, and referral partners may need confidence in the new owner.

The handoff itself can be part of preserving the company’s value.

What Aspiring Entrepreneurs Should Be Doing Now

The demographic transition also creates an opportunity for people who want to own businesses.

Instead of searching exclusively for startup ideas, aspiring entrepreneurs can begin learning how existing businesses operate.

That means understanding:

• Financial statements
• Cash flow
• Business valuation
• Customer concentration
• Employee retention
• Working-capital requirements
• Industry regulation
• Contracts
• Liabilities
• Equipment needs
• Succession structures
• Acquisition due diligence

Industry experience can be especially valuable.

The person most capable of owning tomorrow’s business may already understand the industry today.

Main Street in 2035 May Look Familiar—and Be Owned by Someone New

Ten years from now, the buildings may look familiar.

There will still be contractors.

People will still need dentists.

Doctors will still operate medical offices.

Homes will still be bought and sold.

Clients will still hire lawyers.

Businesses will still need accountants, consultants, suppliers, manufacturers, and service providers.

But beneath those familiar signs could be a significant change in who owns the companies.

Some longtime independent businesses will become part of larger organizations.

Others will transfer to children.

Employees will become owners.

Competitors will make acquisitions.

More entrepreneurs may buy established companies rather than starting from zero.

Hispanic entrepreneurs may continue reshaping industries where their ownership presence is already significant.

Women may gain greater ownership and leadership representation in fields where participation has outpaced control.

And some businesses, unfortunately, will disappear because nobody was prepared to take over.

There is no single statistic capable of predicting exactly what Main Street will look like in 2035.

The available data comes from different sources, years, methodologies, and measures, and comparisons should be made carefully.

But together, the numbers point toward something important.

A generational transition in American business is underway.

The biggest opportunity may not simply be creating the next great company.

For thousands of entrepreneurs, it may be becoming the next owner of a great company that already exists.

Capital Will Be Part of the Next Chapter of American Business

Ownership transitions require more than ambition.

Established businesses need capital to operate, expand, purchase inventory, meet payroll, upgrade equipment, hire employees, pursue opportunities, and manage unexpected expenses.

Those needs don’t disappear when ownership changes.

In some cases, they become more important.

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With approximately 11 years in business, Smart Business Funding has experience working with companies across construction, healthcare, professional services, transportation, retail, manufacturing, and other industries—including businesses that may be difficult to fund through traditional sources.

Whether a business is entering a new generation of ownership or simply preparing for its next stage of growth, access to working capital can help owners act when opportunity arrives.

Explore business funding solutions from Smart Business Funding.

Funding is subject to approval and applicable terms. Business acquisitions and succession transactions can involve significant financial, legal, and tax considerations. Business owners and prospective buyers should consult qualified professional advisors.

Sources and Methodology

This article brings together data from multiple industry sources to examine broader trends in American business ownership.

Construction ownership demographics referenced in this article are based on U.S. Census Bureau Annual Business Survey data compiled by CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training.

Dental practice ownership rates are based on data published by the American Dental Association. Dental statistics describing ownership by age represent the percentage of dentists within each age group who are practice owners; they should not be interpreted as the age distribution of all dental practice owners.

Physician ownership and private-practice statistics are based on research published by the American Medical Association. Practice ownership and private-practice participation are distinct measures and are presented as such.

REALTOR® demographic information is based on data from the National Association of REALTORS®.

Legal profession gender and partnership figures are used to discuss representation and leadership and should not be interpreted as a precise measure of nationwide law firm ownership.

Because these datasets come from different organizations and use different methodologies, the statistics should not be combined to create a single nationwide demographic estimate of American business owners.

Instead, they provide individual snapshots of how ownership, age, gender, succession, and industry structure are evolving across several important sectors of the American economy.