The national economy has certainly been on the upswing in recent years, and that’s beginning to filter down to many small businesses across the country. As a consequence, a large and growing number of owners are now eyeing expansion, and that includes increasing their hiring efforts.
While most small businesses probably aren’t thinking about significantly increasing their payrolls, the tens of thousands of companies nationwide that might be considering at least one hire could have a major impact on the national economy overall, according to a report from Reuters. Plenty of data shows that smaller companies are feeling more confident and hiring more quickly than their larger counterparts; in fact, the former made 81 percent of the hires in January alone, and that number is actually down from 83 percent seen over the last four months.
“Small businesses are now doing better than big business,” Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York, told the news agency. “In general, small businesses were hurt more by the credit crunch than big firms and that headwind for the recovery has become a tailwind as the banking sector has strengthened and eased lending standards.”
Some difficulties remain
However, some experts also point out that it’s still at least a little difficult for smaller firms to find the kind of financing they might need to increase their size with a certain amount of stability, the report said. While more lenders are certainly starting to extend loans to small businesses with greater frequency, it’s still not exactly easy for them to get approval. But if companies continue to improve their bottom lines, loan approval rates will go with it. And even without that kind of help, a little more than 1 in 4 small businesses say they’ve increased their payroll size over the last year.
Certainly, owners who want to make their companies a little more attractive to lenders as they seek to expand would be wise to think about the ways in which they can tighten up their budgets. For instance, if they can succeed in finding ways to cut expenses for necessary costs like small business insurance – including policies for general liability insurance – that may free up thousands of dollars per year that can then be devoted to other aspects of the company, including padding profits.
