American small businesses anticipate robust growth and aggressive activity

 A survey by Chase Card Services, the credit card division of JPMorgan Chase & Co, that was released on Friday showed that a significant number of American small businesses believe the economy will improve in three to six months and are enthusiastic about pursuing growth in their activity.

The study says that four out of five businesses are pursuing a moderate or aggressive growth strategy, expanding into new markets and producing more revenue among existing customers. Only 5% of them said they were not seeking aggressive growth of their business.

The survey polled 168 chief and senior executives from the annual Inc. 500/5000 list of fastest-growing small companies between September 10 and September 14. The online survey by Chase contacted one-third of the 5,000 companies and received about a 10 percent response rate.

Further, the survey shows that ¾ of the companies believe the US economy and their business will show better results in three to six months. About 27 million small businesses operate in the United States and are responsible for roughly 40 million jobs. 

The optimistic results mean the economy is improving, notes Richard Quigley, president of Ink from Chase.

49% of small businesses said they are adding job positions and 29% said they are not adding jobs but they are hiring to upgrade talent. 50% of the companies said they had a hiring freeze, and 5% said they are cutting stuff.