• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 4, 2011

According to the American Express OPEN Small Business Monitor, more small business owners cite growing their businesses as their top priority over "keeping/maintaining my current business and sources of revenue". 37% are expecting to grow and 56% of them are willing to take a financial risk to do so. 65% believe growth will be slow and steady and 16% are planning for aggressive growth.

Integral to growth, 35% are planning to hire full and/or part-time staff, up nine percentage points from fall. Among those with hiring plans, 35% plan to hire one employee, and 33% two. 8% plan to hire three, and 20% plan to hire four or more over the next six months.

For marketing their businesses, more entrepreneurs are using social media to attract new customers (44%, up from 39% six months ago), specifically:

• 35% Facebook
• 15% LinkedIn
• 10% Twitter
• 8% blog
• 8% YouTube
• 2% FourSquare

44% plan to make capital investments, on par with 48% last spring and up from 38% last fall. 33% of these business owners are most eager to spend on technology, including additional software licenses and new computers. Technology also plays an important role in online marketing, with the top three techniques being a company website (65%), search engine optimization (36%) and online social networking (35%).

Small Business Online Marketing Tactics (Spring 2009, 2011; % of Respondents)
Tactic Using	% of Respondents
	Spring 2009	Spring 2011
Company website	54%	65%
SEO	22	36
Mass email	22	24
Online social network	13	35
Pay-per-click advertising	11	17
Banner/pop-up ads	8	11
Blog	7	12
Podcasts	3	3
Source: AmericanExpress OPEN, April 2011

Among those business owners approaching growth aggressively:

• 22% plan to introduce new products and services in order to grow (vs.14% of slow and steady business owners and 2% trying to keep the lights on)
• 58% use online social networking to market to customers (vs. 33% of slow and steady business owners and 21% trying to keep the lights on)
• 43% offer healthcare benefits to employees (vs. 36% of slow and steady business owners and 26% of those trying to keep the lights on).

When asked which business mantra they ascribe to, the top choice among entrepreneurs was "you are only as good as your people" (27%), followed by

•  "the customer is always right" (24%)
•  "never stop marketing" (11%)
• "it's all about who you know" (5%)
• "it's about being in the right place at the right time" (3%)
• Only 28% do not have a mantra.

While 49% of business owners have a positive outlook on business prospects, despite the economic climate, 18% are "trying to keep the lights on." And, cash flow concerns have risen to a historic high of 66% from a near pre-recession low of 53% just six months ago. The greatest concern for 23% of business owners is the ability to pay bills on time, followed by accounts receivable and having enough cash to win new business (each 14%), as well as the ability to meet payroll and the capacity to accurately track cash flow (both 7%).

Among business owners, 29% say it has gotten harder to access capital over the last six months. Other factors include higher gas and energy prices (80%). Finally, Generation Y has the most positive outlook on the economy; Generation X are the most likely to use online marketing techniques for their business, and Baby Boomers are most likely to have cash flow issues.
For more data from the American Express OPEN Small Business Monitor Survey, please visit here.