@Risk

The vast majority of the world’s consumers are located beyond the borders of the US, and yet only 24 percent of the nation’s small and medium-sized businesses currently are engaged in global commerce, according to new research released a few weeks ago by UPS.

The online survey, which polled 1,082 US small-and medium-sized businesses last August, was designed to measure current perceptions of global trade, identify export barriers and uncover potential strategies to overcome these barriers so SMBs can become more engaged in global trade. The results showed that:

(more…)

Despite other indicators that suggest the economy is beginning to rebound, the National Federation of Independent Business Index of Small Business Optimism has now posted an unprecedented 18 consecutive monthly readings below 90.

Essentially, the results of the survey can be summed up by these two troublesome findings: (more…)

The Small Business Optimism Index lost 1.3 points in February, falling back to the December reading of 88.0 and landing only 7 points higher than the survey’s second-lowest reading reached in March 2009, reports the National Federation of Independent Business. (The index’s lowest reading was 80.1 in 1980.)

The persistence of Index readings below 90 is unprecedented since surveys were started in 1986.

Small business owners continue to cite poor sales as their top problem. The net percent of all owners (seasonally adjusted) reporting higher nominal sales in the past three months remained negative at negative 26 percent, unchanged from January’s reading.

And without sales: (more…)

There’s no doubt that small businesses everywhere are feeling squeezed by the credit crisis. But, are some small businesses emerging as more creditworthy than others? If so, how can you make that distinction? At this point in the economic downturn, are there any indicators that can help predict which companies may be better credit risks?

Experian, a global information services company, delved into questions like these and recently released the results in a fascinating Market Insight Snapshot titled “Understanding the state of small-business risk.”

Experian tracked more than 300,000 small businesses in the U.S. from April 2007 to April 2009. Their analysis examined the rate of new derogatory events (meaning incidence of a new lien, judgment, collection, bankruptcy or severe payment delinquency) and uncovered several intriguing emergent trends.

(more…)