Is Optimism Crashing for Small Business Owners?

In this video, Matt goes over an article by Inc. Magazine. In the article, it says that business owners’ optimism is crashing, but is that really the case? Watch as Matt gives his thoughts. 

Video Transcript: 

The last thing I’m looking at in this particular session is how small business optimism comes crashing down. Okay, so that’s a headline that immediately draws some attention. It gets clicks and people go “Oh no, what’s happened? Why is it crashing down?” But I think with just scratching the surface a little bit you can see that one that’s probably not really the case. It was a headline meant to grab attention not really to explain or transmit facts to the reader. And I think it’s obvious when you see that you know what they say is okay, the Small Business Optimism Index from the National Federation of Independent Business fell – fell! – to 91.2 in August after reaching 93.7 in July, the highest reading since February 2022. Okay, so it crashed from 93.7 to 91.2. A staggering drop of 1.5 points on a 100-point scale. Really? That’s crashing? That’s optimism falling off a cliff? And that’s what I mean, these headlines are just designed to suck you in and make you read so they can show you ads. But it’s not really crashed. I think it also really depends on how you ask the question and what questions they’re asking and who they’re asking as to whether or not the optimism is there or not. If you asked a bunch of mortgage lenders they may still be somewhat pessimistic. Cause rate cuts haven’t happened yet and their business is kind of slow although it’s been picking up. And on the other hand, there might be other groups who ask that are wildly optimistic. For example, people who print yard signs for elections, right? Their business is probably through the roof right now because there’s an election coming up. And they’re printing a ton of yard signs and everything feels rosy. But I don’t think these things mean anything. It’s what’s happening in your world, in your business, in your area, in your specific area of concentration where you’re actually operating. That’s what matters. And then to call this a huge drop-off or dive or whatever. I mean realistically, right, it’s a 1.5% decline from the mid 90s to low 90s. And hardly something I’m gonna start to lose sleep about or get worried about. So I think this is just, not false advertising but certainly a deceptively worded headline meant to draw attention and not really give you any useful information. So I think you could do better Ink Magazine if you wanna serve your readers well. This is not the way to do it.