Black small business owners are looking forward to growth, even in today’s economic conditions, according to a new report by Thumbtack.
Thumbtack Journal surveyed nearly 3,000 small business owners around the country and found that black business owners are generally more happy to work for themselves.
According to the report, 58.7 percent of black respondents said that they expect economic conditions to get better within the next year. 43 percent of black small business owners also thought that the economy was better than it was a year ago compared to 40 percent of non-black respondents who felt the same way.
The optimism from black small business owners came from specific regions in the report. Positive expectations mostly came from the South. Houston, Virginia Beach, Va., Charlotte, Atlanta and Columbia, S.C. had the most optimistic economic business expectations.
Other major cities with booming tech industries like Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Boston were ranked among the lowest for economic optimism.
Respondents ranked acquiring new customers and access to credit as some of the largest challenges to having a black-owned business. Some of the respondents (48 percent) attributed their race as to why they found it difficult in getting new customers.
Building a business brings a sense of pride to many owners and many said they are happy to be working for themselves. According to the Thumbtack report, 80 percent of respondents said they are happy with their careers.
