Optimism Knows No Slowdown

Small business owners say they're too busy thriving on Main Street to worry about the gloom and doom on Wall Street.

This article was written by Justin Petruccelli for the Entrepreneur Insider   |   June 09, 2008

Spend enough time following the news, and it's enough to make you wonder if Chicken Little was appointed chairman of the Federal Reserve. Granted, things like the dismal housing market and soaring gas prices are certainly real problems for everyone.

On the other hand, when you read about some cubicle jockey complaining that she had to give up Starbucks because the economy's so bad, the line between real problems and a dire shortage of common sense becomes pretty blurry.

So, is the sky really falling? According to a March 2008 study, small business owners say no.

"The entrepreneur is still thriving," says Rick Jensen, senior vice president of small business for Intuit, the company that conducted the survey. "It goes back to the roots of who these small business owners are. They've faced adversity and they play offense. This isn't news to them."

The study, which sampled 751 small business owners with 100 or fewer employees, found that 90 percent of those surveyed said they see opportunity in the current economic climate and 75 percent said they expect their business to grow.

About half said the economy levels the playing field between small business and their larger counterparts, and 65 percent said they've had experience guiding their business through tough economic times. Their focus, to the tune of 63 percent of those surveyed, is customer retention, something Jensen says is a big part of what drives small business owners and allows them to do well under any economic conditions.

"They're in a unique position based on where they come from," he says. "They think fast. They're much more in a position to move very quickly in terms of how they align their resources. They're used to doing that anyway, in good times and bad. It goes back to the reason they got into it in the first place--passion."

Other entrepreneurs have managed to thrive in a slow economy by combining the usual innovation with a healthy dose of good karma, a very marketable commodity in any economy. Besides small businesses being better equipped to handle a slow economy to begin with, Jensen says, the current economy actually favors them because as larger companies struggle, their customers and even their employees will flock to smaller ones.

"I think small businesses have a unique opportunity," he says. "As you see larger companies downsize, you're going to see Middle America turn to small businesses. Small business will be a place where the middle class will find their middle class wealth again. The thing about America is that the entrepreneurial spirit has never been stronger. Small businesses are where people are going to want to go to work. What people are going to see is that, as small businesses continue to grow and be a more important part of the economy, it will fuel entrepreneurship even more."

Click here to read the entire article. Justin Petruccelli can be reached at jpetruccelli@entrpreneur.com.