Small Business Owners Less Stressed About 2014

In a survey of 500 small businesses in the United States, 41 percent reported increasing levels of stress. That's not good, but it's a lot better than it was: 49 percent said stress was increasing in 2012, and 50 percent thought so in 2011.

Stress among small business owners has been coming down from even higher levels during the height of the financial crisis, which is good news for everybody.

Despite being less stressed than they were, small business owners are not overly optimistic about 2014. Fifty percent of them said that they were, down from 55 percent in 2013 but up from 45 percent in 2012, pointing towards it trending sideways.

Owners do, however, have higher hopes than the rest of the world, where optimism dropped to 38 percent from 48 percent last year. Optimism in the U.S. always leads the rest of the world by a pretty wide margin.

Source: 2014 Outlook: The Good News Is, You'll Be Less Stressed, Inc.com (Dec 31, 2013)