Sixty-Nine Percent of Business Owners Do Not Plan on Hiring Within the Next Year

NEW YORK, Aug. 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Newtek Business Services, NASDAQ: NEWT, The Small Business Authority’s Authority Market Sentiment Survey, a monthly window into the concerns of independent business owners. Based on a poll of approximately 1,100 respondents, one of the key findings from the August survey was that 69 percent of small business owners do not plan on hiring.  Two other questions in our survey support the findings of business pessimism.  Most business owners, looking out on the horizon, are either pessimistic or neutral at best, regarding the overall business environment.  Several business owners during the last 12 months have raised their prices or maintained them to fight off the effects of inflationary pressures eroding their margins.  Business owners in an economy described as stagnant, need to improve their cash flows and bottom lines while continuing to look towards the only segment of their business where the market enables them to improve their cash flows.