Small business survey in the US

Below are some interesting figures from a  survey of 1,000 small business owners in the US. It’s not clear when the survey was done, and economic conditions worldwide are deteriorating rapidly but nonetheless, the figures make for some interesting reading. Small businesses of course face a huge threat when macro economic conditions are in sharp decline. As against that, being small means being nimble and small businesses can adapt to conditions faster than big ones, so really a mixed bag. Anyway, here’s a snippet from the article, link to full post at bottom of this excerpt.

Asked about their outlook for their business’s performance in 2012, SMBs were divided. Forty percent are either “optimistic” or “very optimistic” about the coming year, 32 percent are “neutral” and 28 percent feel either “pessimistic” or “very pessimistic.”

Heading into 2012, SMBs will continue to focus on the challenges that occupied them in 2011. Specifically, their key areas of improvement will be customer/client growth (60 percent) and customer/client retention (38 percent). As a result, the top areas where SMBs plan to spend are marketing (35 percent) and sales (28 percent).

When it comes to innovation and risk-taking, however, the outlook is ho-hum, to say the least. Just 15 percent will focus on technology innovations, a mere 9 percent say geographic expansion is on the horizon, and only 21 percent are even planning to expand their product/service offerings. Nearly one in five (19 percent) say they will make no new investments in their business in 2012.

via Small Business Outlook for 2012: Business as Usual?.