Small Business Owners Bloomingdale IL

There are plenty of must-haves when it comes to starting a business: a great idea, solid plan, creative marketing strategy. And some way to fund all those grand ambitions. But perhaps the most important factor is also the most intangible: optimism. To make the move from "What if?" to a grand opening, you need to believe that you can and will succeed.

Illinois SBDC and ITC at College of DuPage
630-942-2771
425 Fawell Boulevard
Glen Ellyn, IL
Illinois SBDC at Harper College
847/925-6520
650 East Higgins Road, Suite 106
Schaumburg, IL
Illinois SBDC and ITC at Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago (ICNC)
312-433-2373
8430 West Bryn Mawr Ave, Suite 1100
Chicago, IL
Illinois SBDC and ITC at NORBIC
773-594-9292 ext. 6804
8430 West Bryn Mawr Ave, Suite 1100
Chicago, IL
Illinois SBDC at Champaign county Economic Development Corp.
217-378-8535
5 East Galena Boulevard
Aurora, IL
Illinois SBDC at College of Lake County
847-543-2033
425 Fawell Boulevard
Glen Ellyn, IL
Illinois SBDC at Elgin Community College
847-214-7488
1700 Spartan Drive
Elgin, IL
Illinois SBDC at Joseph Center
708-697-6200
7600 West Roosvelt Road
Forest Park, IL
Illinois SBDC and ITC at SIU-Carbondale
618-536-2424
5 East Galena Boulevard
Aurora, IL
Illinois SBDC at Waubonsee Community College
630-906-4143
5 East Galena Boulevard
Aurora, IL

Small Business Owners

While small business owners are still struggling, there are signs of increasing confidence that sales will increase in the near future. However, the overall mood is still pessimistic with as many as 77 percent of respondents to one survey citing business conditions as fair or poor. See the following article from The Street for more on this.

small business optimism
There are plenty of must-haves when it comes to starting a business: a great idea, solid plan, creative marketing strategy. And some way to fund all those grand ambitions.

But perhaps the most important factor is also the most intangible: optimism. To make the move from "What if?" to a grand opening, you need to believe that you can and will succeed.

We've heard so many disheartening stories about struggling small businesses that it may come as a surprise to hear that many are pulling through the recession with optimism intact. Buried beneath the bad news, there are small, but encouraging, signs that small-business owners haven't given up hope. And that's a promising development for the economy as a whole.

Every month, the National Federation of Independent Business surveys owners to produce a monthly Small Business Optimism Index. Not surprisingly, the May report revealed that owners are still struggling. Only 4% of respondents said the next three months would be a good time to expand, and almost 90% reported that they have no job openings.

However, the optimism index itself, which takes into account 10 business indicators, was at its highest level since October 2009. Another encouraging result came from a question that asked owners to predict whether sales would rise in the next three months. For almost two years, the number of owners who expected sales to fall was higher than the number who predicted sales would increase. In the May report, at last, the optimists slightly outnumbered the pessimists.

The same trend was also evident in the most recent Discover Small Business Watch, which found that 30% of small-business owners surveyed expect economic conditions for their business to get better in the next six months, up from 20% a month ago.

That slight, but heartening, uptick in confidence was also evident in the most recent Wells Fargo(WFC)/Gallup Small Business Index survey, which asks owners to assess their companies' current financial situation and expectations. Based on the answers to 12 questions -- six about a company's present situation and six about the future -- an overall Small Business Index is computed once each quarter.

For the second quarter of 2010, the index was minus-11, indicating that owners overall are more pessimistic than optimistic. However, when asked specifically about future expectations, more gave positive answers than negative. Slightly more than half rated their company's current financial situation as somewhat or very good.

Modest improvements in revenues, credit availability and capital spending over the past 12 months...

Click here to read the rest of this article from NuWire Investor

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