Canadian small- and medium-sized business owners are more willing to spend money on improving their organizations than they were six months ago, a new global study by HSBC has found.
On the whole, small firms around the world are more optimistic about their business prospects than they were six months ago, the bank’s semi annual Small Business Confidence Monitor found.
North America saw the biggest jump in confidence, up 12 points, with only a single point separating Canadian and American businesses.
In this country, bosses remain cautious and are keeping a steady hand on hiring.
On the upside however, more small companies, often referred to as the "life blood" of the economy because they represent the vast majority of Canada’s 2.3 million businesses, have raised their capital expenditure plans from 27% to 32%.
"Earlier this year, Canadian small businesses expressed a fair deal of optimism, and we're encouraged to see that feeling improve further,” said Miguel Barrieras, HSBC Canada’s senior vice-president and national head of business banking.
Approximately 28% of Canadian business owners surveyed said they do cross-border business, up 10% from just six months earlier. Despite the improvement Canadians still lag the international average, which stands at 36%.
"As emerging markets continue to drive a large portion of the globe's economic recovery, Canadian SMEs are uniquely placed to explore new trading and investment opportunities beyond our traditional partner, the United States."
The most significant barriers to international business cited by Canadians were currency differences, local regulations, market complexity, solvency concerns, reliability of overseas suppliers and sovereign risk.
The HSBC survey includes responses from 6,346 SMEs across 21 markets in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, North America and Latin America. The survey was conducted in May and June 2010, with a sampling error of +/- 5.7%, at a 95% confidence interval.
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