Small Business Owners Saw Big Growth Last Year, Poised for More

The past few years have been pretty good for many small businesses across the country thanks to the ongoing economic recovery, but by far the most positive was 2014. Now, many owners are anticipating even more improvement for 2015, and are preparing in a number of ways.

In all, 61 percent of small businesses say their companies went through some growth last year, and 80 percent say that they anticipate additional improvement over the course of the year to come, according to the latest Semi-Annual Small Business Index from Rocket Lawyer. A big part of the reason for this is that many younger entrepreneurs are starting to get into the sector for the first time ever, with 51 percent of millennials now saying they’re self-employed. However, hiring is also on the rise, with 27 percent of companies actively doing it these days.

What else will be undertaken this year?
Meanwhile, businesses are also doing a bit more to embrace new trends and technologies, the report said. For instance, 29 percent of companies say their top concern for the coming year is how they’re going to start growing their online presence, and many are bringing aboard additional workers to help them better market their products online. In fact, 35 percent say they’re mostly concerned with that online presence, and will hire more marketers (27 percent) and salespeople (37 percent) to help them reach these new goals.

In addition, 60 percent of small businesses also say they’re going to at least consider adopting mobile payment technology this year, and of that number nearly 7 in 10 say they think it will help to simplify their transactions, the report said. Millennial-owned companies seem most interested in this kind of effort, with 71 percent of those younger owners responding this year, especially because more than half of them believe it will help them to gain a foothold in their local markets.

For all these reasons, it might be wise for owners to take a close look at their incomes and expenditures and determine if there’s any wiggle room for them to improve their bottom lines. For instance, if they can find more affordable small business insurance – such as policies for general liability insurance – they might be able to trim thousands of dollars from their annual budgets and put themselves in a better position to succeed going forward.