Jun 13, 2012

Survey Of Business Owners Shows Preference For Smaller Government

This article was originally published on our Forbes blog and can be found here. Newtek Business Services, NASDAQ: NEWT, The Small Business Authority, with a portfolio of over 100,000 business accounts, announced today the findings of its SB Authority Market Sentiment Survey, a monthly window into the concerns of independent business owners. Based on a poll of over 1,000 respondents, one of the key findings from the May survey is 80% of business owners prefer a smaller Federal Government as opposed to a larger one. Additionally, 73% of business owners believe the federal government should cut the growth of spending. When considering the upcoming Presidential election and which candidate is better suited to help small business, 52% of business owners prefer Barack Obama and 48% think Mitt Romney is the better choice. The full May 2012 results showed the following:

Poll Question	Poll Answer	Percentage
Which Presidential candidate is better suited to help small business?	Barack Obama	52%
	Mitt Romney	48%
Do you favor larger or smaller Federal Government?	Larger	20%
Do you favor larger or smaller Federal Government?	Smaller	80%
Do you believe the federal government should spend more money to stimulate the economy or step aside and cut the growth of spending?	Cut Spending	73%
	Increase Spending	27%

The poll surveyed independent business owners and expectations were met as small business owners clearly prefer less government spending and less government interference in the small business economy. It is somewhat surprising that the sample appeared to favor Obama as a better advocate for small business. The differential between Obama and Romney as an advocate for small business narrowed over the course of May, as time wore on, from 10% to 4%, which may also be indicative of a trend. It is possible that Obama’s favorability advantage over Romney may overshadow small business policy implications.