Yesterday, we talked about the best news I’ve heard in quite some time. For small businesses, at least.
Paynet’s survey revealed that small biz borrowing is up nearly 25 percent, the highest total in three years. It also revealed that small business hiring was on its way up, which cannot be couched as anything but encouraging. It’s a good time to be a small business, at least compared to the last couple of years.
Yet optimism levels are plummeting. A staggering 88 percent of small businesses expect a flat or recessionary economy in the next 12 months. That’s up significantly from even six months ago, when things were much more visibly bleak. What exactly is going on?
Something similar happened with equipment finance recently, and it has to do with human nature. Most people are naturally optimistic, or at least tenacious, so they can weather endless bad news about the economy for a while. With the media focus still being on the possibility of a double-dip recession, that confidence has eroded, even as things have visibly gotten better. We’re paying the price for our hysterical coverage, in short.
The only thing we can hope is that this isn’t forcing small business owners further into their bunkers. Now is the time to get financing, go out and make a big move and try to ride the (admittedly small) wave. It is not the time to hunker down.
In this case, 88 percent of businesses may well be wrong. Do you agree?
Photo credit to http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-4633733-tree-in-palm-of-hand.php?st=c61de6e
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