Small Business Finance News
Discover Small Business Watch: Small Business Confidence Takes Slight Hit
Written by Jenna Weiner
Published: 2/28/2011
Small business confidence dips slightly, according to Discover Small Business Watch.
As February comes to an end, financial news for entrepreneurs - or at least the burden of taxes - has caused optimism to slip ever so slightly for small businesses.
According to the Discover Small Business Watch, which measures small business economic confidence on a monthly basis, optimism throughout this sector dipped from 91 in January to 90.2 in February.
Furthermore, 50 percent of small business owners said temporary cash flow problems during the last 90 days had caused them to delay paying bills, compared to 43 percent in January. An additional 80 percent of small business owners noted that the tax preparation and documentation process was somewhat or very time consuming.
"Hope seems to be tempered by reality this month," said Ryan Scully, director of Discover's business credit card. "The number of small business owners seeing economic conditions getting better for their businesses is the highest we've seen since February 2008, but concerns over temporary cash flow show the biggest one-month spike since November 2009."
However, a separate survey from MerchantCircle reported that confidence increased for the first time since the third quarter of 2009 during the fourth quarter of 2010, with 63.5 percent seeing an improved economy.
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