Small business decision-makers from across the country reported an unchanged opinion about the U.S. economy. They reported, however, a slight increase in optimism about their own prospects for revenue growth in 2012 compared to 2011 according to a recent Small Business Opinion Poll.Though 58 percent of small business decision-makers report business-related worries keep them up at night, the EMPLOYERS Small Business Opinion Poll found the 2012 figure to be significantly improved compared to results one year ago. This year, 40 percent responded they don’t worry about their businesses versus 30 percent who didn’t have sleep-depriving worries in 2011. The latest poll also reveals that today’s small business worries are more focused on issues related to growing their businesses (20 percent) rather than variables that are more out of their control like the economy.
This boils down to leadership and teams that can drive both results and growth.
Findings:
- 44 percent feel the U.S. economy will be better in 2012 than in 2011
- 45 percent expect sales growth this year versus 41 percent in 2011
- 23 percent are currently at pre-recession revenue levels
- 21 percent are currently hiring versus just 15 percent a year ago
- 21 percent plan to hire additional part-time or seasonal workers for the summer
Industry-specific Trends
The restaurant industry segment reported the strongest optimism and expectation for growth with 61 percent expecting the U.S. economy to improve in 2012 and 61 percent saying they expect their businesses to grow over 2011 levels. The restaurant industry also leads the way in job creation plans among small businesses with 39 percent saying they are currently hiring and 42 percent indicating they plan to hire additional workers for the summer season.
Other industries feeling more bullish about their ability to grow revenue in 2012 include the communication industry (53 percent), manufacturing (52 percent) and financial services (51 percent).
About the Small Business Opinion Poll
The study commissioned by EMPLOYERS surveyed 500 owners or managers of small businesses with 1-99 full-time employees. Data was collected through telephone interviews during the period Feb. 16 – Feb. 23, 2012 at the 95 percent confidence level. The sample is stratified across business size and industry grouping, including manufacturing/construction, transportation/communication, wholesale/retail, financial services, or personal/professional services businesses.
Copyright TIGERS Success Series by Dianne Crampton
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About Dianne Crampton:
Dianne Crampton is the Founder of TIGERS Success Series. She is the leader in building successful, quality-focused and cooperative team culture communities.
As a thought leader in the team culture movement, she has been published by Barrett Koehler, Pfeiffer (an in print of John Wiley & Sons) and Three Creeks. Her latest work, TIGERS Among Us: Winning Business Team Cultures and Why They Thrive has received international acclaim.
Nominated by Merrill Lynch for Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year Awards for a team culture change system that helps leaders bring about desired team culture change remarkably fast, she certifies and licenses consultants, facilitators, and HR leader to use the proven TIGERS team culture system within their organization with measurable success.
TIGERS helps leaders build and improve trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk, and success in teams which results in a dynamic work environment that attracts and retains very talented, quality-focused people. Subscribe today to receive instant access to Dianne’s general membership where like-minded professionals discover valuable resources for team, leadership, and cooperative work environment development that grow organizations in a scalable and measured way.
Dianne, great business stats. It’s amazing how the mind can focus on something and believe something to be true – whether it really is true or not. As you know, I specialize in mindset and people’s fears do keep them up at night and this creates a whole domino effect. Thanks for sharing! This is important info
Thanks, Kate, for your comment.
Many high level executives we work with in TIGERS Coaching often resolve business issues in their sleep – or not. We call the tossing and turning mind looping. This is where the mind tries to resolve problems continuously and needs to be put back to bed.
We ask these Executives to put a pad by their desks and write down the issue. Then we ask them to drink a 3-4 ounces of water and tell the mind that the concern is noted.
Then we ask them to focus on their happy place or something they truly appreciate and drift back to sleep.
It is very interesting how many people report that the solution came to them when they work up in the morning. The solution is often very intuitive and something the mind would not have resolved.
For the exeutives who believe in carving out space during the day for a 20 minute power nap, this process works for this, too. Thanks for you comment. We note two of these executives as an example in our book TIGERS Among Us. One has a business with 10 employees and the other 1800. So size of the company certainly is not the power napping issue. It is will and awareness.
Thanks so much for commenting. When people do, it draws more out of us so our ideas are shared.
People often have trouble making decisions – because to decide means to CUT OFF – so when we make decisions we have to be willing to CUT OFF that which we don’t want in favor of what we do. For small business owners a lot of times we want it all and we want it all NOW and the challenge that I have found in my own business and in the businesses of my clients and colleagues is discerning what the best choice is for this moment in our business and which will get us to specifically where we want to go – unclarity about where we want to go is probably the biggest block to being able to decide! Thanks for the powerful stats Diane – will be using some of these in my conversations with clients!
You are welcome, Amethyst. Clarity is a real gift for the business owner when they are able to achieve it. All their actions become that much more powerful.
Thanks for visiting and taking time to read in the Den.
Dianne