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Discover's "Small Business Watch" index reached 86.9 in August, up 2.3 points from July and up more than 15 points than June, which was a 22-month low.
"We saw an increase in their confidence in the direction of the overall economy, but that was offset by more owners saying they're having cash-flow issues," Ryan Scully, director of Discover's business credit card, said in a press release. "Their perceptions of the conditions for their own businesses were flat, making this gain harder to pin down. There is still a great amount of caution out there."
Discover, a leading credit card issuer, every month surveys about 1,000 small business owners who have fewer than five employees. That segment accounts for 22 million businesses and more than a trillion dollars in annual receipts.
The number of surveyed owners who think the economy is getting worse dropped to 60 percent this month from 71 percent in July. In addition, 23 percent of small business owners said the U.S. economy is getting better, which is the highest level since August 2007.
Other findings:
--51 percent rate the economy as poor, a decrease from 54 percent in July; 15 percent ranked it as good, up from 11 percent in July.
--42 percent say they have experienced cash-flow issues during the last 90 days, a significant increase from 33 percent in July 2008.
--Perceptions of their own situations stayed flat: 30 percent of owners say economic conditions for their business are getting better, up slightly from 28 percent in July; 44 percent say conditions are getting worse, up a point from 43 percent in July.
--Three out of four business owners do not contribute to campaigns and more than half think the election provides no forum for their issues.
"It's not that surprising that small business owners are less apt to get involved in the political process," said Scully in the release. "They are so fiercely independent and hard working that, for one, they don't have a lot of leftover time or money to donate; and two, they don't have the lobbying power in Congress that larger corporations do."
To reach Joyce Smith, call 816-234-4692 or e-mail jsmith@kcstar.com.
To see more of The Kansas City Star, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.kansascity.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Kansas City Star, Mo. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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