Carol’s recent post on the Bank of America Small Business Community, “What Small Business Owners Need to Grow Their Companies – and the Economy,” gives her perspective based on the results of a recently published report. Carol begins:

The Fall Small Business Owner Report (SBOR) from Bank of America shows that while small business owners are generally optimistic, there’s a downward trend of individuals who expect to grow their business – even from just this spring.

 This trend may not be surprising given the heated political environment and the concerns that, despite the rhetoric about the importance of small business in the economy, policies to help small businesses thrive rarely follow suit.

 In the SBOR, the two biggest economic concerns impacting business owners weren’t things like consumer spending or even credit availability—no, the top issues were healthcare costs and corporate tax rates, with the latter at a slight increase from just a year ago.

 Not entirely coincidentally, those issues have been at the heart of important yet stalled legislation over the past year. This means that government could, with the right focus and guidance, truly help small businesses create more optimism and, ultimately, growth.

You will definitely want to check out the full article here.