74 Percent of Small Business Owners Optimistic on Economy

Almost three-fourths of small business owners in the U.S. are confident that their revenues will grow through 2014, according to a new study by cloud HR services provider TriNet.

The Small Business Confidence Survey, which explores the opinions of U.S. small business owners in regard to issues such as their outlook on the state of their companies and on federal and state legislation, was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of TriNet.

The findings: 74 percent of respondents strongly or somewhat agree that their businesses will grow their revenue in 2014. This survey was conducted online within the United States between January 20-30, 2014 among 206 U.S. owners of small businesses with 10-49 employees.

In addition to confidence in their businesses, the survey also found that:

With this positive outlook, 50 percent of small business owners plan to hire more employees this year. More specifically in terms of importance to business owners, 35 percent of respondents surveyed rank hiring qualified staff as one of their top three most important issues that concern them.
Financial issues such as getting new business, managing expenses, and cash flow are top of mind for small business owners. Each issue ranks among their top three concerns, as cited by 51, 49, and 48 percent of respondents, respectively. Also in the top three concerns of small business owners surveyed are taxes (24 percent) and managing debt (13 percent).
Less tangible but still important to business owners is the ability to maintain a balance between their work and personal life, with 32 percent of small business owners ranking this in their top three issues of importance.

Small businesses are a critical growth driver to the American economy. In the past 20 years, big business eliminated 4 million jobs while small businesses added 8 million new jobs. Additionally, small business represents over 99 percent of U.S. employer firms. This belief may be what is driving owners to invest in their businesses, including the hiring of new employees and expanding of their office locations.