Small business sentiment on the economy this year remains skeptical, according to a new survey of 600 small businesses by Alibaba.com, Vendio and Auctiva. While many are generally optimistic about their own opportunities with nearly half of respondents expecting to see revenue growth this year, only 37-percent of them expect the economy to improve in 2013.
The results should be of interest to online entrepreneurs blog shops – they are a consolidation of two surveys carried out in December 2012, of which 80-percent of small business respondents are purely online-only businesses (with 17-percent using both only and offline, and the rest wholly offline). 92-percent of those surveyed have 1 to 5 employees, with 82-percent having revenues of %50,000 or under in 2012.
The top concerns for small businesses this year mainly revolve around regulatory issues: taxes (70-percent), and government regulation (50-percent).
Other key takeaways:
- 87-percent will not be hiring any employees this year.
- Top four concerns/obstacles to business growth in 2013?
- Flat economy
- Taxes
- Cost-cutting
- Time
- Issues affecting small businesses in 2013
- Taxes (70%)
And if you’re an online entrepreneur, this infographic shows these and more – you may be interested in the parts on social media, mobile payment and word-of-mouth:
