Business Owners’ Confidence Still On The Rise

If the latest information from the Discover Small Business Watch is to be believed, small business owners are now feeling more confident than they have in quite a while.  Discover’s monthly index puts confidence levels in May (which is close to "now," anyway) at a seven-month high.

Here are a few cheerful facts: compared to April, more small business owners said they believe the economy is improving (35 percent versus 31 percent).  Also, more small business owners said they were increasing spending (25 percent versus 23 percent).

Finally, on a year-over-year basis, only 51 percent of small biz owners canceled or postponed vacation plans due to the economy (versus 58 percent for May 2009).

All of this caused Discover’s index to rise from 85.1 in April to 87.4 in May.

Ryan Scully, director of Discover’s business credit card, then observed in a statement, "This boost could be significant because we were polling following the week in which the Greek banking crisis reverberated through Europe, the gulf oil spill intensified and the Dow Jones plunged below 10,000.  By their responses, small business owners are seeing improvement in the economy in spite of bad news."