Fourth Quarter 2011
KCSourceLink and MOSourceLink Small Business Outlook Survey
Are banks back to lending?
We keep hearing reports that banks are once again lending and businesses are hiring. The reports sound positive, but we were curious to know what actual small business owners around the Kansas City area thought.
The results come from the SourceLink Opinion Panel. Once each quarter KCSourceLink and its sister program, MOSourceLink, invite a small sampling of area business owners to share their opinions and expectations on small business issues. While not a scientific sampling, the panel does provide a meaningful gauge of small business confidence and expectations. Below are the results from the latest survey, conducted in December 2011.
Accessing capital, is there any to be had?
This quarter we asked our panelists, "Have you sought bank financing in the past year? If so, how did it go? If not, why not?" Below are the results of what our panelists said.
Have you sought bank financing in the last 12 months?
If you needed funding and did not approach a bank, where did you get funding?
Expectations for the next Quarter
As we saw in the previous quarter, the majority of panelists are optimistic about business operations over the next 90 days. None of the respondents expect to contract their business, while 48% anticipate business expansion. 90-Day Growth Expectations: Contraction or expansion
90-Day Growth Expectations: Employee count
90-Day Growth Expectations: Expected change in sales
Panelists were generally optimistic about the outlook for both the current year and next year. It will be interesting to see if opinions change on these questions in upcoming quarters.
This year will be better for business in general compared to last year 
I expect this year will be better for MY business than last year
Next year will be better for business in general than the current year
Next year will be better for my business than the current year