Things Are Looking Up on Main Street

Things Are Looking Up on Main Street

The New York Deli in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo: Sam Goldenberg & Associates

Small business owners are the most optimistic they’ve been in seven years. This according to a Wells/Fargo Gallup Poll released last Thursday, February 5, 2015. Now at an index of +71, optimism among proprietors of Main Street businesses has increased steadily over the last two quarters. Business owners are feeling good about their current situation and are optimistic as they look to the future.

While Gallup reports that the small business index has yet to regain pre-recession levels when it registered at a height of +114, the trend is heading in the right direction. The +71 score is a significant improvement over +49 in July 2014 and +58 in November 2014.

What’s behind this sanguine outlook? According to Gallup, better revenue pictures, an improved hiring environment, and the ease of obtaining credit are the major factors.

Gallup summarizes: “Small-business owners’ more upbeat views of their operating environments come at a time of generally positive economic trends in economic growth and unemployment, as measured by the government, as well as year-over-year upticks in Gallup’s consumer-based reports on employment, company hiring and consumer spending.”