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Small Business Owners Achieved Better than Expected 2009 Financial Results
and Forecast Higher Revenues and Profits in 2010

Executive Summary
September 2010                                                             Download Full Report  PDF 239 KB

America’s small business owners are considerably more upbeat about the financial performance of their businesses than they were a year ago, according to a new special economic report by The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute. Fifty-one percent of small business owners surveyed in June of this year anticipate their 2010 revenues will exceed their 2009 sales. A year ago, only 32 percent expected better financial performance in 2009 than the prior year.

The Institute’s analysis is based on a comprehensive study, The Guardian Life Index: What Matters Most to America’s Small Business Owners, which surveyed 1,200 small business owners with 2-99 employees across 12 key industry sectors, including: Accounting and Financial Services, Arts and Entertainment, Environmental, High-Tech, Hotels and Restaurants, Manufacturing, Personal Services, Professional and Technical Services, Real Estate, Retail and Wholesale Trade, Traditional/Discretionary Health and Other. In 11 of these sectors, small businesses comprise 50 percent or more of U.S. gross domestic product; in one case, Environmental, they represent a fast-growing component of an emerging industry.

The Institute’s findings reveal that America’s small business owners outperformed their own revenue estimates for 2009. When asked to look back at their businesses’ actual performance in 2009, 39 percent reported a revenue increase over 2008. However at mid-2009, only 32 percent expected their businesses to outperform 2008.

Presented in the full length, downloadable report are deeper insights, key small business trends and data tables from The Guardian Life Index regarding small business owners’ economic outlook for 2010.