Small Business Owners Still Doubtful about Economic Turnaround

Article by JULIA L. ROGERS, AOL SMALL BUSINESS, Posted: 2010-04-27

Small businesses contribute 50% of the Gross Domestic Product

Small businesses with less than 50 employees responsible for 33% of new job creation

National Federation of Independent Business Organization has a monthly small business optimism index:

Current 86.8 – 18th month below the 90 value

The trend continues down since the index fell 1.2 points last month

1981 Recession – index dipped below 90 for only 3 consecutive months

Many small businesses are builders and developers – in 2008, it was estimated that there were around 1,000,000 builders which are either out of business or have scaled back considerably. As you know, I consider the housing industry to be the leader into and out of a recession. Large companies seem to be improving but not small businesses and not home building. In the home building industry, the large national builders have been gaining market share for years.

As we bounce along the bottom of the recession, is this the start of a paradigm shift in the building industry? Especially when “too big to fail” has been the basis in which public policy is being molded. The positive economic news is good to hear.

But, what about assisting small businesses succeed since their contribution to the economic recovery is significant? Will the army of small volume builders disappear?