NFIB

Small-Business Survey: Sales, Profits Slip But Prospects Still Strong in Florida
Release Date: 12/ 01/ 2005

CONTACT: Jim Brown, (615) 874-5288

Florida Entrepreneurs Pleased With Business Conditions, Less So With Business Environment

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida's small-business owners said sales and profits were weaker this quarter, but they're still very positive about prospects over the next few months, according to the Florida Small-Business Conditions^SM. The report's data, which was released today by the National Federation of Independent Business/Florida, provides an overview of small-business conditions within Florida and compares them with neighboring states.

A net 44 percent (positive percent minus negative percent) of respondents said sales were "good" over the last quarter, down from a net 53 percent in September. A net 28 percent said profits were "good," below September's net 38 percent reading. Despite the slippage, a net 68 percent said prospects over the next few months look "good," which was the highest reading among six Southeast states and No. 2 among 26 states in the survey group.

A poorer business environment countered this optimism, with a net 25 percent saying the state's business environment – which includes government officials, bankers, media outlets and community organizations – is "supportive." That reading was last among the six Southeast states, but still a respectable No. 12 in the national survey group.

"Florida's small-business owners seem ready to uncork the champagne bottle this holiday season, but they've decided to wait another year until they see greater commitment to real reforms from our state leaders," NFIB/Florida Assistant State Director Patrick Arrington said. "Florida entrepreneurs recognize business conditions are good, but they also know more action and less token rhetoric from our leaders would go a long way in improving their situation and enhancing job creation."

Arrington pointed to the business environments in Georgia and South Carolina, which ranked No. 2 and No. 4, respectively, among the survey group, and noted that those states recently passed meaningful legal reform and economic packages for small business. Boding well for Florida, Arrington said, is that a net 50 percent of respondents said business conditions in their market area are "good," which was the No. 4 reading among 26 states, trailing only Virginia (net 53 percent) in the Southeast.

By region, business conditions were best in North Florida (net 63 percent said "good"), followed by Central Florida (net 57 percent), Tampa/West Coast (net 53 percent) and the Gold Coast (net 39 percent). The business environment was best in North Florida (net 35 percent said "supportive"), followed by Central Florida (net 29 percent), Tampa/West Coast (net 28 percent) and the Gold Coast (net 18 percent).

The Small-Business Conditions^SM reports are developed from surveys of small-business owners in selected states. The surveys are designed to determine the condition of the small-business economy in each particular state. The surveys are conducted every three months and results are released on the first day of the month following completion. The text of the questions and the complete response set to the survey can be found at www.NFIB.com/research.

Florida Small-Business ConditionsSM
This chart shows the results within Florida and its principal regions.
		Fla.	North	Central	Gold Coast	Tampa/ W. Coast
Business Climate	Survey Date
Overall state business environment
Net % supportive of small business	11/2005	25	35	29	18	28
	Prior qtr.	29	34	31	29	26
Business conditions in market area
Net % "good"	11/2005	50	63	57	39	53
	Prior qtr.	55	55	57	49	63
Net % "improving"	11/2005	18	24	22	11	23
	Prior qtr.	25	28	30	20	27
Outlook for business
Net % "good" in next three months	11/2005	68	73	68	63	71
	Prior qtr.	69	70	69	70	69
Reason for optimism
% Sales prospects	11/2005	38	46	38	31	43
	Prior qtr.	42	39	43	44	40
% Lower costs	11/2005	3	5	4	4	2
	Prior qtr.	4	3	2	6	3
% Price increases	11/2005	5	6	4	7	3
	Prior qtr.	4	2	4	4	4
% Greater productivity	11/2005	16	12	19	18	13
	Prior qtr.	13	16	12	12	14
% Government policy	11/2005	4	2	5	4	5
	Prior qtr.	4	6	4	4	4
% Seasonal/Weather	11/2005	12	9	9	11	16
	Prior qtr.	12	14	11	11	13
Reason for pessimism
% Sales prospects	11/2005	IC*	IC	IC	IC	IC
	Prior qtr.	IC	IC	IC	IC	IC
% Cost increases	11/2005	IC	IC	IC	IC	IC
	Prior qtr.	IC	IC	IC	IC	IC
% Pressure on selling prices	11/2005	IC	IC	IC	IC	IC
	Prior qtr.	IC	IC	IC	IC	IC
% Lower productivity	11/2005	IC	IC	IC	IC	IC
	Prior qtr.	IC	IC	IC	IC	IC
% Government policies	11/2005	IC	IC	IC	IC	IC
	Prior qtr.	IC	IC	IC	IC	IC
		Fla.	North	Central	Gold Coast	Tampa/ W. Coast
Sales and earnings (last quarter)
Sales
Net % sales "good"	11/2005	44	59	47	34	49
	Prior qtr.	53	55	55	50	54
Profits
Net % profits "good"	11/2005	28	40	35	17	33
	Prior qtr.	38	41	43	36	35
Employment
Current job openings (one or more)
% "Yes"	11/2005	26	22	26	28	26
	Prior qtr.	26	28	27	24	27
Per employee payroll cost
Net % "risen"	11/2005	17	18	18	14	20
	Prior qtr.	16	19	24	11	17
Employee cost pressures (greater)
% Wages	11/2005	53	61	57	53	47
	Prior qtr.	57	65	58	56	53
% Benefits	11/2005	27	21	24	29	31
	Prior qtr.	24	19	20	25	28
		Fla.	North	Central	Gold Coast	Tampa/ W. Coast
Productivity
Upgraded technology/processes (last three months)
% "Yes"	11/2005	45	42	45	48	44
	Prior qtr.	46	42	45	49	43
Made capital expenditure(s)  (last three months)
% "Yes"	11/2005	43	45	46	40	45
	Prior qtr.	43	42	47	43	42
Made expenditure to train employee(s) (last three months)
% "Yes"	11/2005	43	43	42	43	44
	Prior qtr.	40	42	37	41	40
Capacity utilization - can increase sales 10% without new inputs
% "Yes"	11/2005	55	59	55	52	56
	Prior qtr.	55	56	58	54	54
Credit availability (last three months)
% All credit needs satisfied	11/2005	42	36	44	42	45
	Prior qtr.	41	39	42	41	39
% All credit needs not satisfied	11/2005	7	5	7	9	6
	Prior qtr.	5	5	5	7	5
% No credit needs	11/2005	46	54	45	44	46
	Prior qtr.	48	51	47	47	49
		Fla.	North	Central	Gold Coast	Tampa/ W. Coast
Prices
Purchasing prices (last three months)
Net % increased	11/2005	59	55	56	57	66
	Prior qtr.	55	57	53	57	54
Selling prices (last three months)
Net % increased	11/2005	23	26	20	21	24
	Prior qtr.	20	20	18	19	23
Miscellaneous
Involvement in start of another business
% "Yes"	11/2005	14	12	12	16	13
	Prior qtr.	13	12	10	17	9
Single most important business problem
% Weak sales	11/2005	9	8	7	9	11
	Prior qtr.	7	10	10	5	7
% Taxes	11/2005	7	8	9	7	5
	Prior qtr.	8	9	8	8	7
% Employee quality/costs	11/2005	11	13	11	9	13
	Prior qtr.	12	15	13	11	10
% Insurance	11/2005	15	18	13	15	16
	Prior qtr.	16	15	15	17	17
% Big-business competition	11/2005	15	14	15	16	13
	Prior qtr.	14	13	14	14	16
% Inflation/Rising prices	11/2005	15	17	16	15	15
	Prior qtr.	14	11	13	16	14
% Credit availability/Interest rates	11/2005	5	3	4	6	3
	Prior qtr.	3	3	4	3	2
% Regulations/Red tape	11/2005	8	6	10	8	8
	Prior qtr.	8	9	7	7	9

*Insufficient cases

Florida Quarterly Spotlight
	Fla.	North	Central	Gold Coast	Tampa/ W. Coast
How important is immigrant labor to businesses in your area? Is it very important, somewhat important, not too important or not at all important?
Very important	20%	13%	17%	24%	23%
Somewhat important	26%	22%	22%	29%	27%
Not too important	16%	22%	17%	15%	13%
Not at all important	28%	32%	32%	25%	28%
Don't know/Refused	9%	12%	13%	7%	9%
Total	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%
Which best describes the role immigrant labor plays in your area?
Provides skills not otherwise available	10%	5%	9%	13%	10%
Fills jobs that otherwise wouldn't be filled	33%	33%	27%	36%	34%
Crowds out American workers	9%	8%	10%	8%	9%
No appreciable role	26%	28%	32%	23%	27%
Don't know/Refused	22%	26%	23%	21%	20%
Total	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%

 

The Poll
NFIB’s Florida Small-Business Conditions^SM is a telephone survey of a random sample of Florida’s small employers regarding business condition within the state. “Small employer” is defined here as someone employing between one and 250 people (not including the owner(s)) in a for-profit business. Four separate regional surveys are conducted, each with a minimum of 350 respondents. The North Florida survey samples small employers in ZIP codes 32000-32099 and 32200-32699. Pensacola, Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Gainesville are included. The Central Florida survey samples small employers in ZIP codes 32100-32199, 32700-32999, 34400-34499 and 34700-34799. Daytona Beach, Ocala, Orlando and Vero Beach are included. The Gold Coast survey samples small employers in ZIP codes 33000-33499 and 34900-34999. Fort Pierce, West Palm Beach, Miami and the Keys are included. Finally, the Tampa Bay-South survey samples small employers in ZIP codes 33500-34299 and 34600-34699. Spring Hill, Lakeland, Sebring and Naples are included. The sampling error of each survey is ± 5 percentage points. States totals result by population weighting regional totals. Data are collected quarterly in the months of February, May, August and November, beginning in February 2005. The MRCGroup of Las Vegas conducts the survey for the NFIB Research Foundation.

The Sponsor
The NFIB Research Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) organization that provides policy-makers, media, educators, small-business owners and other interested parties empirically based information on small business and small-business owners. The Foundation is affiliated with the National Federation of Independent Business, the nation’s largest small- and independent-business advocacy organization, and is located in Washington, D.C.