A new survey from TD Bank shows that small business owners in Florida are both successful and optimistic about future success, with Hispanic business owners taking center stage.
The survey, which is TD Bank’s second annual Florida Small Business Pulse Check, found that Hispanic business owners are overwhelmingly positive about their individual businesses, and also about the state’s economy as a whole.
The Miami Herald reported that, according to the TD Bank survey, 85% of Hispanic small business owners in Florida expect to meet or succeed their revenue goals for 2015; this is a 78% improvement from last year’s survey. Only 40% of respondents believe that the national economy has has a negative impact on their business, whereas in 2014, 60% of respondents felt this way.
The survey also found that 43% of Hispanic business owners in Florida are planning to expand a product or service, 16% plan to invest in developing new products and/or services, and 21% are planning to add more employees over the next year.
Even the U.S. Small Business Administration noticed the jump in minority-owned businesses, the South Florida Business Journal said, and its latest survey found that all minority groups, save for American Indians, saw an increase in business ownership in South Florida over the past year.
On a larger scale, the Pacific Research Institute ranked the state of Florida in the top 10 best states for small businesses. According to the Orlando Business Journal, Florida ranks ninth overall. Individual cities, as well as the state of Florida as a whole, have all passed legislation protecting small business owners and the employees who work for them, focusing on issues such as family leave and government-subsidized alternative energy sources.
Not only is the Orlando community focusing on creating a welcoming environment for small businesses and startups, but similar trends have popped up across the country over the last few years. Shareable office spaces, for example, are common among startups and easy to find in big cities. Cloud-based programs and forums are becoming more popular as well — which come in handy when physical office space isn’t available — and the variety of cloud service providers with competitive pricing has resulted in substantial cost-savings for 82% of companies that move to the cloud.
Although local economies are capable of changing just as fast as this new technology changes, economists are saying that the optimism of Hispanic business owners in Florida are very influential. This sort of optimization, said TD Bank regional president Ernie Diaz, may start locally but ends up having an impact on the entire state’s economic stability.
