Small Business Owners Say They’ll Stockpile Cash For Now

The office equipment-maker, Brother International, published the results of its annual Brother Small Business Survey, and the results indicate small business owners feel more confident about the economy compared to the previous year.

When asked whether or not small business owners preferred to invest or stockpile cash, 51-percent of respondents preferred to stockpile cash, versus 47-percent who responded they would rather invest capital towards gaining a competitive advantage over competitors.

 It also seems that more small business owners are more stressed everyday largely because of the current economic climate. 17-percent of respondents said their stress level is at its highest ever, with 35-percent saying their stress level is higher than usual, with 36-percent reporting about the same levels of stress. Only 3-percent said their stress level is at its lowest ever. Aggregately, 52-percent reported higher levels of stress, versus 9-percent experiencing lower stress.

The study was conducted via telephone survey and included 501 U.S. small business owner respondents.

Brother International’s small business expert Bruce Freeman exclusively told The Business 2.0 Press, “The Brother survey helps us better understand the concerns of the nation’s small business owners. It gives us insight into what small business owners value and how we can help them succeed. The survey revealed common themes about time management, investing time vs money and dealing with tech downtime. Getting better organized and following state and federal policy changes may be helpful in dealing with the current high stress levels. The Brother survey did shed light on the benefits of running your own small business such as the ability to quickly respond to customer service issues and the ability to quickly implement executive decisions.”

To review the entire survey results, simply download and review these two PDF documents.

Brother International 2011 Small Business Survey Quick Read

Brother International 2011 Small Business Survey Demographic Report