SMB Survey Takes the Pulse of Small Businesses

By Keith Girard

Edward Fields has a pretty good feeling about small business in the coming year. The financial consultant says his outlook is based on what he sees as a kind of Goldilocks

"Interest rates are higher, but they’re not high," he says. "Banks have plenty of money so businesses can get loans, and there is an extraordinary amount of private equity money around."

What’s more, he adds, people with money are looking for deals as opposed to people with businesses looking for money. "A lot of people are doing business. Business is good," he says.

His optimistic view is shared by 79 percent of the small business owners who were questioned recently in a comprehensive survey by AllBusiness.com. Those business owners also said they expect things to get better in the coming six months compared with 4 percent who expect things to get worse.

The sweeping survey, the first of its kind by AllBusiness.com, sampled the attitudes of just over 1,000 small business owners on a range of subjects, from the macroeconomics of the economy to the microeconomics of running their firms. A key part of the survey also looked at how small business owners are using technology to grow their companies.