Small business owners optimistic despite U.S. presidential election uncertainty

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Of the 900 small business owners surveyed for the inaugural 2016 Fall/Winter Chase Business Leaders Outlook, two-thirds said they were optimistic about their business for the coming 12 months. More than half (55%) said they were optimistic about their industry.

Optimism was highest among Hispanic business owners, with 87% expecting sales and revenues to rise and 81% expecting profits to rise in the coming year.

However, optimism in their local and national economy were down for the third year in a row. Just 49% were optimistic in their local economy in this year’s survey, and 42% about the national economy.

“Most small business owners are still bullish about their own growth, just as they were in our spring survey,” said Laura Miller, president of U.S. Small Business for Chase Commerce Solutions. “With the holidays approaching, most predict increases in online sales, and almost half predict their customers will spend more this year.”

In terms of employment, 53% expect to give their employees a holiday bonus within the next 12 months, while 35% expect to increase part-time, and 27% increase full-time, employees.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristina Knight-1
Kristina Knight, Journalist , BA
Content Writer & Editor
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Kristina Knight is a freelance writer with more than 15 years of experience writing on varied topics. Kristina’s focus for the past 10 years has been the small business, online marketing, and banking sectors, however, she keeps things interesting by writing about her experiences as an adoptive mom, parenting, and education issues. Kristina’s work has appeared with BizReport.com, NBC News, Soaps.com, DisasterNewsNetwork, and many more publications.