Businesses in better mood, survey finds
‘There is light at the end of the tunnel’
Canada’s small business owners are feeling upbeat, according to a semi-annual report by the Bank of Montreal.
The report is based on a survey of about 500 randomly selected small business owners across the country and measures how confident entrepreneurs are about the economy and their own business prospects. According to the report, small business owners are slightly more confident than they were in the spring, with more than half expecting business will improve in 2015.
Robert McLean, vicepresident of commercial banking at BMO, said he wasn’t surprised by the results.
“From the smaller startups to the mid-sized companies, everyone is optimistic. Everyone has taken their lumps, if I can say that, over the last few years,” Mr. McLean said. “They’ve retooled. They’ve looked at this and said, ‘Hey, there is light at the end of the tunnel.’ ”
According to the report, small business owners in British Columbia are the most optimistic, while entrepreneurs in Atlantic Canada have the least sunny outlooks overall. When it comes to how they think the economy is going to fare for the rest of 2014, business owners in Saskatchewan and Manitoba are the most positive with 65% believing things will improve, compared with 41% of Quebec entrepreneurs.
About half of small business owners across the country think their businesses are going to grow next year, with just 8% bracing for shrinkage. Interestingly, those same business owners in the Prairies who had the rosiest view of the overall economy were the most pessimistic about their own business prospects, with 12% of business owners in Saskatchewan and Manitoba expecting their companies to shrink next year.
However, they’re not necessarily planning to translate that optimism into business investment. Just one-quarter of business owners said they plan to invest more money in their businesses next year.
The report notes that in every province, small business owners are more optimistic now than the survey indicated they were in the spring.
Mr. McLean said he thinks entrepreneurs are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel after years of tough economic times.
“We’ve come through the tough part of the recovery. It’s probably been as bad as it’s going to get and now it’s going to get better,” he said.