Small Business Owners Are Thinking Big Again

Nearly two-fifths of small business owners are expecting an economic turnaround in 2010. Another 44 percent think a rebound will occur in 2011, and only 17 percent are unsure. These encouraging findings regarding small business owners’ morale come from the latest Business Confidence Survey by Administaff, a provider of human resources services for small and medium-sized businesses.

Of note, the percentage of small business owners who cite the economy as their biggest short-term concern is 71 percent, down considerably from 83 percent in July of last year, and the continuation of a downward trend first evidenced in in October (77 percent). Right now, 54 percent cite government health-care reform as their top short-term concern.

For the longer-term, those who say they are “very concerned” list the economy in fourth place at 36 percent, whereas 55 percent name government expansion and the effect on business as the leading issue, 52 percent designate the federal deficit and the total national debt as second (vs. 42 percent in the last survey), and 50 percent cite potential tax increases as third.

Asked about their pipelines for new business for the balance of 2010, 55 percent say that they expect a sales increase, up from 48 percent last October; 30 percent predict it will stay the same; while only 7 percent anticipate decreasing sales, down from 11 percent last fall and 15 percent in July. Seven percent of respondents are unsure. In addition, 72 percent of owners and managers of small- and medium-sized businesses say they are either meeting or exceeding their 2010 performance plans compared with 58 percent in the last survey, while the remaining 28 percent report that they are doing worse than expected.

Posted by RecruitingTrends.com on May 19, 2010. Filed under Data Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry