SmallBusinessNewz

Companies that take surveys of the small business community to determine whether or not confidence in the economy exists can't find a consensus.

How much confidence do you have in the economy? A couple of different surveys may agree or disagree with you.

The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index said small business owner optimism hit its worst score ever in April 2008, when the Index recorded a meager 48.

Compare that to the inception of the Wells Fargo index in August 2003. At that time, owner optimism recorded a 69 in the Wells Fargo rankings, a soaring figure compared to today.

"The Index score is the sum of both current and future expectations of small business owners for six key measures: financial situation, cash flow, revenues, capital allocation, job hiring, and credit availability," Wells Fargo said.

That Index dropped 35 points from January 2008, the date of the last survey.

The survey becomes more interesting when considering a similar effort from credit card issuer Discover, which detected a rise in optimism via the company's own monthly survey of small businesses.

Discover found cause to believe its survey clients discovered a little reason for optimism in April. Their index rose slightly, a situation Discover connected with better cash flow among its monthly survey group.

So who to believe? Depends on who you ask.