The National Federation of Independent Business and National Association of Manufactures recently released their 3Q Survey on the opinions and state of the economy.
The good and the bad news is that 35% of small businesses agree with the statement "my company is now operating for the standpoint that there is enough economic opportunity in the market today to expand, grow or hire new workers." This is good, since 35% (over one third) of businesses see the light at the end of the economic tunnel. This figure indicates large increases for previous surveys, especially those from 2011.
The bad news is that the increase is not as large as most had hoped for. While the number show improvement, it continues to show that things are slowly (very slowly) starting to improve. If you take the time to read through the survey, the majority of reasons for business owners not wanting to expand is Federal, State and Local government policy, taxation, regulation and uncertainty. These were the number two and three reasons for not investing or expanding business behind employee health care costs.
For what I can remember as a first, small business owners reported that they felt both China and India were more supportive to entrepreneurship than the United States! We at American Finance Solutions hear the same through our client base for both old and new. Across all geographic and industry types, business owners just want to know with some level of reasonable confidence what the future has inshore on both a Federal and local level. Most have lost their faith in the political system, no matter what party they belong in, to operate efficiently and come up with some type of economic plan.
This same uncertainty also plagues mainstream financing such as banks, traditional asset-based lenders, etc, keeping demand for alternative lenders such as merchant cash advance filling the need for the 35% of small business that see the light. With this increase demand the MCA space will see continued new products with customized rates, terms and other attributes to fulfill specific niches.
As always, American Finance Solutions, continues to provide financing to Main Street by putting the client first and custom pricing each contract to meet each client's individual needs and help them reach the light!