Overall happiness ranked at 27 per cent, placing owners in the city at the third-happiest in Canada -- just behind Calgary (30 per cent) and Montreal (29 per cent).
"What the TD Small Business Happiness Index demonstrates is that small business owners enjoy a sense of control and freedom that they don't generally realize when working for someone else," stated Alec Morley, senior vice-president of small business banking at TD Canada Trust.
"Despite the recent economic downturn and the ongoing challenges of managing and growing a business, the personal satisfaction small business owners report illustrates one of the key advantages of owning your own company."
According to TD, the following factors contributed to small-business hapiness:
- Pride and accomplishment from owning your own business (93 per cent);
- Volunteering or donating money to local charities or sports teams (93 per cent);
- Feeling a "deep personal connection" to employees and customers (85 per cent).
Other benefits included being your own boss and setting your own schedule, although long hours were a staple of business -- at an average of 50.4 hours a week, among the top three in North American cities surveyed. Forty-three per cent of owners worked more than 60 hours a week.
"Small business owners tell us that owning a business has many advantages, despite the day-to-day challenges that come with running a company like red tape, property taxes and attracting and retaining talent," stated Morley.
The survey was conducted by Environics Research, and polled 1,213 small-business owners across the continent between May 13 and June 15. That included 101 small business owners in Ottawa.
