Discover Finds Small Business Economic Confidence Surges

“While we saw confidence rise almost across the board, small business owners who have been open less than two years showed the most enthusiasm for the economy that we’ve seen in that category since June 2007,” said Ryan Scully, director of Discover's business credit card. “At the same time, the economic environment is challenging. Most owners still rate the current economy as fair or poor and continue to keep business development spending on hold.”

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.

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.