The Trump bump continues, and Main Street appears to be intact. U.S. small-business owners are more optimistic now than at any point in the 15-year history of the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index.
Among other findings, the pollster revealed that 78 percent of the owners now rate their current financial situation as “good.” Another 77 percent expect their cash flow to be good in the next 12 months.
President Trump himself does well here in their research. On a list of small-business challenges — which include taxes, government regulations, hiring and credit — Mr. Trump was the last on the list of concerns, cited by only 2 percent of the owners.
The quarterly survey also measures small-business owners’ attitudes about their businesses and future expectations, through open-ended questions and other factors. Gallup calculates the index based on these wide-ranging results. The overall index score now stands at 118 — besting the record-high of 114 in 2006.
The lowest score — a “minus 28” emerged in 2010.
In addition, Gallup also found that 69 percent of the small business owners say their cash flow in the last 12 months has been good, while 49 percent expect that it will be easy to get credit in the next 12 months and 35 percent expect the number of jobs at their own business to increase.
The source: A Wells Fargo/Gallup poll of 604 U.S. small-business owners in all 50 states, conducted July 11-18.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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