For most small business owners, the new year is a time for setting goals and making practical plans for how to achieve them. In uncertain economic times like these, however, routine planning activities can be a challenge for business owners trying to anticipate what the future will bring.
This holds particularly true for women and minority entrepreneurs, who may face added challenges related to securing funding and business resources.
Despite concerns about inflation, pricing and a possible recession, a recent report from Bank of America finds women and minority business owners around the country are optimistic about the future of their businesses. Bank of America’s 2022 Women & Minority Business Owner Spotlight surveyed hundreds of business owners to better understand their perspectives, aspirations, and concerns heading into the new year, and the results inspire hope in the year ahead.
According to the report, while 67% of survey respondents are concerned a potential recession will have an impact on their business over the next year, more than three-quarters said their business is equipped to survive a potential downturn.
Across the spectrum, 66% of business owners expect their revenue to increase in the next 12 months – a seven-year high – with minority-led companies ahead of nonminority counterparts in these positive projections. Hiring plans also reached the highest levels in seven years, with 38% of respondents indicating they are looking to hire over the next 12 months.
In general, women business owners have a positive outlook, with 47% planning to expand their business over the next year. Many women feel that their businesses face unique challenges, with 52% citing a lack of equal access to capital, and 60% reporting they are self-taught business owners, compared to just over half of men. Despite these obstacles, nearly three in four women business owners say they feel equipped to weather a recession.
That’s positive news, and mirrors what we see here in the Chicago area. Many of our women business clients are gearing up for record growth in the coming year. Consider longtime Bank of America small business client Ewelina Beardmore, whose psychotherapy clinic has grown exponentially over the past 12 months, adding 10 new clinicians to her practice last year alone.
Working in lockstep with her small business banking team, Beardmore has separated her personal and business financials, established business credit, and recently closed on a significant loan through the Small Business Administration (SBA Loan) that will enable additional growth for her practice in 2023 and beyond.
In the Hispanic-Latino business community, owners are even more optimistic than their peers about business outlook. Over the next 12 months, 71% of Hispanic-Latino business owners expect to increase their revenues and 59% plan to expand their business. That’s the case for Venezuelan-born Daniel Briceno, whose empanada concept, Fons Empanadas, has taken the Chicago area by storm and is poised for regional and national growth in the year ahead. Briceno opened his first location in Lincoln Park in April 2021, and now has three locations in Chicago and one in New York. Despite continued supply chain challenges and labor shortages, Briceno expects his revenues to increase in 2023 and will continue working to expand his business.
Business owners in the Chicago area are more confident than they were this time last year, despite economic uncertainty. Perhaps most importantly, business owners across the Chicago area feel financially prepared for whatever economic reality lies ahead, which is the first – and most critical – step to creating a sustainable, thriving business.
Armed with the data, business owners can have confidence diving headfirst into their 2023 planning activities with big goals and even bigger dreams. And, if they need help mapping out exactly how to achieve them, there’s a Bank of America small business banker in their community’s financial center standing by to assist.
