Source: http://reuters.com
Small business owners are optimistic about the future of the economy. That’s the gist of a new Bank of America survey released last week. The first of its kind, the survey included some 1,000 small business owners.
“The overarching theme here is despite of all the stress and challenges, small business owners in this country are confident folks and feeling pretty good about the near term future of their business,” said Robb Hilson, a small business executive with Bank of America. “Optimism has improved over the last several quarters.”
Though the survey found that small business owners feel confident about their local economies, they feel less confident about national leadership, which is unsurprising given the upcoming election and the shaky economic recovery.
According to the survey, talent retention ranked as the biggest concern for small business owners. Of the companies surveyed, 44 percent did not offer a benefits package, and Hilson cited the need for employee retirement plans to help retain talent and avoid losing workers to larger firms and companies. That jibes with another recent study Reuters covered about a crisis in employee retirement planning among African-American owned businesses.
Aside from retirement planning, the survey also found that cash flow problems, though helped by debt collection technologies like mobile payment platforms, were another point of stress for small business owners.
