Came across an article by Scott Shane this morning on Small Business Trends that cites a survey conducted by Discover Small Business Services which concluded that temporary cash flow is still declining for small businesses. But I wonder, is this fact or just a perception?
Scott writes: “…The figure plots the percentage of respondents to the Discover Small Business Watch monthly survey of a random sample of 750 small business owners who answered “yes,” they are experiencing temporary cash flow issues…”
Not that I think that everything is rosy for small businesses, far from it, but are small businesses confusing lack of credit with a real difference in cash flow? Are they reacting to shrinking lines of credit or slower receivables? Does it reflect an increase in orders that have to be filled with less working capital? Do they see their cash reserves being stretched over a longer period of time, or is it really just that profitability has decreased and they now need additional capital to fund new business?
What’s been your experience?
Susan Martin, Small Business Financial Management
