Small Business Expectations Rise in 2017

In what some may consider a continuation of the “Trump Trend”, since the election markets are up sharply and now small business sentiment is following suit. The latest survey from NFIB shows a huge jump in optimism among small business owners…

Small business optimism rocketed to its highest level since 2004, with a stratospheric 38-point jump in the number of owners who expect better business conditions, according to the monthly National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Index of Small Business Optimism, released today.

small business optimism Index

“We haven’t seen numbers like this in a long time,” said NFIB President and CEO Juanita Duggan. “Small business is ready for a breakout, and that can only mean very good things for the U.S. economy.”

The article goes on to say that while optimism is up, hiring activity still remains flat. The markets have also flattened out as everyone is taking a ‘wait and see’ attitude to see what actually gets through Congress this year.

The expectation of important cost relief from deregulation and tax reform is strong among small business owners and consumers, all of which is yet to be accomplished and has a hard political road to travel. But the data indicate that business owners are indeed very optimistic. View the full story… nfib.com

It’s a pretty long and detailed article and definitely worth a look. There is also a PDF download for all the graphs on the page.

We also have a wait and see attitude, but are updating our clients’ marketing strategies to take advantage of the upswing when it happens.