Over the past few years, many small business owners have started to feel better about their companies’ chances for success thanks to the steadily improving economy. That, in turn, has translated to hiring more workers and giving raises to those they already have, and it’s a trend that certainly continued through the start of the new year.
When compared to December, the average hiring efforts and paycheck increases seen by the nation’s smallest businesses were both up close to 1 percent, according to the latest SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard. That also marks a considerable improvement on a year-over-year basis, because both conditions were actually down 0.3 percent from December 2013 in the same month last year. These numbers had also been steadily increasing over the course of 2014.
“We’re seeing a lot of positive indicators right now,” said SurePayroll general manager Andy Roe. “Having cash available is one of the most important things to a small business owner, so to see they have more now than they did a year ago is a big deal. For most of last year, small business owners were telling us they were becoming more and more profitable. We’re seeing the fruits of that now.”
How positive is it?
As part of this monthly survey, the company also asked owners to look at their prospects for the coming year, and most liked what they saw, the report said. For instance, 52 percent of those polled said they had extra cash on hand at the moment, up from 45 percent in January 2014. Further, more than 3 in 5 said they were planning to grow larger or already doing so this year, and 48 percent said they planned to hire people for new positions.
Consequently, it should come as no surprise that nearly 4 in 5 say they’re optimistic about the national economy these days, the report said. That’s up from just 65 percent who felt the same way a year earlier.
And over the course of this year, owners who can keep a close eye on their bottom lines and position themselves for a more secure future will likely be the ones that have the most success. That kind of effort might include having the ability to find more affordable small business insurance – including policies for commercial insurance – to potentially save thousands of dollars over the course of 2015.
