Businesses are feeling optimistic about the coming year, results from Nevada State Bank’s ninth annual survey of small business owners and executives in Nevada showed.
Nearly 50 percent believing the business environment would improve over the course of the year, the majority reporting that their business would return to normal by 2023, Nevada State Banks said in a news release.
“Successful business executives have become adept at overcoming obstacles, finding ways to address new problems, and persevering through whatever comes their way,” said Terry Shirey, president and CEO of Nevada State Bank. “Nevadans are nothing if not resilient as they believe 2022 will be better, with nearly 78 percent believing the business environment will improve or stay the same.”
The annual survey is conducted by Applied Analysis and asked questions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, economy, business environment, revenue and profitability, employment, community involvement, and the overall outlook for small businesses in Nevada. Highlights of this year’s survey include:
• The economy remains a top economic concern for businesses in Nevada. Businesses remain generally pessimistic about where the national economy is headed, but they have a more positive mindset regarding Nevada’s economy.
• Businesses indicated education funding is a priority in Nevada’s next legislative session in 2023.
• Supply chain issues appear to be the biggest economic challenge facing business today. More than 80 percent of respondents indicated they had experienced supply chain challenges this year.
• Overwhelmingly, hiring and retaining quality workers is the single most important challenge that small businesses face. This year, 37.7 percent of respondents indicated this as a top challenge, up more than 16 percent from 2021, and exceeding the previous high of 35.3 percent in 2020.
• Housing affordability is expected to worsen and remain a concern for businesses as interest rates continue to rise. More than 42.6 percent are very concerned with housing affordability and nearly 1 in 4 small businesses are moderately concerned (23.8 percent).
• The general sentiment is that businesses are still a couple of years away from returning to pre-COVID-19 business volumes. Of small businesses that felt they were not yet operating at pre-COVID-19 levels, the general sentiment is that it would take about two years for their business to return to pre-COVID-19 levels.
The statewide survey was conducted during January on behalf of Nevada State Bank. To ensure it is statistically significant, the bank surveyed more than 400 randomly selected small business decision makers, including owners, operators, and executives representing Nevada businesses with annual sales ranging from $250,000 to $10 million.
For more, go to www.NevadaSmallBusiness.com/survey.
