Small Business Watch
April 2008
Economic Confidence Continues to Slide
Small business economic confidence continued to slide in April, marked by another drop in the number of owners who say that economic conditions for their business are getting better. In April, 24 percent of owners said things were looking up, down from 45 percent at this time last year and hitting the lowest reading since the survey began in August 2006. Overall, the Watch declined to 76.1 in April, down from 77.8 in March.
April Highlights:
55 percent rate the U.S. economy as "poor" compared to 53 percent who said the same in March. The combined percentage of small business owners who rate the U.S. economy as "excellent" or "good" remained unchanged this month at 16 percent.
44 percent say they have experienced cash flow issues over the last 90 days, a slight decrease from 47 percent in March.
Only 27 percent of owners say they plan to increase spending on business development in April, while 44 percent plan to decrease spending. Both of these data points are the lowest results for this question since the Watch's inception 20 months ago.
