The number of small business owners who say the economy is getting better nearly doubled to 31 percent, up from 16 percent in March and the highest level in this category in two years. The number of owners who see the economy getting worse continued to decline. It dropped to 51 percent in April, down from 69 percent in February 2009.
Yet while the anticipation of improvement is on the rise, 91 percent of small business owners still ranked the current economy as fair or poor, a figure that has been constant for eight months.
April Highlights:
- 32 percent of owners see economic conditions for their businesses improving, up from 24 percent in March; while 40 percent see conditions getting worse, down 7 percent from the previous month; 22 percent say it’s staying the same and 6 percent weren’t sure.
- 58 percent of owners say they have not experienced temporary cash flow issues in the past 90 days that have caused them to hold off on paying some bills.
- 21 percent of owners say they plan to increase spending on business development over the next six months, unchanged from March; 46 percent plan to cut spending and 30 percent will make no changes.
POLL: Social Networking on the Rise
When asked if they were a member of any online social networking community such as Facebook, Linked-In, My Space or Twitter, 38 percent said yes, which is up from 22 percent who answered a similar question in October 2007.
"Of those who use the Internet to network, more say they use it for purposes other than getting new business leads," Scully said. "I think this speaks to the fact that there just aren’t as many leads out there – on the Internet or elsewhere – and open-minded small business owners are trying more avenues to develop new prospects."
When asked which networking opportunities they use most, 46 percent of small business owners identified traditional methods such as conferences, trade shows, local in-person groups or chambers of commerce. Of the remaining respondents, 16 percent cited "other" networking opportunities, 8 percent cited online sites, 7 percent said e-mail, and 22 percent said they weren’t sure.
Other Networking Poll Highlights:
- 62 percent of small business owners still do not have Web sites for their businesses. That is down from 65 percent in November 2007.
Of those who currently belong to an online social network, only 45 percent use it to promote their businesses.
- 40 percent of owners say they have used e-mail to promote their businesses.
- 42 percent say they spend three or more hours online each week related to their businesses, 29 percent are online less than an hour, 21 percent stay on for one to three hours, and 5 percent aren’t sure.
