Welcome back! Into 2023 with some optimism.
66% of small business operators are forecasting revenue increases in 2023, according to Bank of America’s national 2022 Women and Minority Business Owner spotlight report.
More than half of the entrepreneurs said they have plans to expand their businesses, an increase from 37% over spring 2022.
Inflation was the primary concern among small business operators at 75%, followed by commodities pricing at 69% and concerns over the threat of recession (67%).
66% of business owners were uneasy about the nation’s political environment, and 65% were keeping a watchful eye on interest rates.
An overwhelming number of entrepreneurs (80%) remained concerned about critical supply chain delays caused by the pandemic. And while 38% said they planned to increase hiring in 2023 (a seven-year high), labor-shortage problems also contributed to small business owners unease.
Combine that with a survey from RedHat, and there is not much change to IT priorities. Security remains the top IT funding priority across all regions and industries, with 44 percent of respondents calling it a top three funding priority, a total eight points higher than cloud infrastructure. The top priorities were network security (40 percent) and cloud security (38 percent). In comparison, third-party or supply chain risk management (12 percent) and security or compliance staffing (13 percent) ranked as the lowest security funding priorities.
Why do we care?
I wanted to start the year with a more positive story – there’s some optimism, with an expected increase in revenues. The themes of concern aren’t new to listeners of the show, so get out there and capture some business.