Minority businesses in Connecticut and the rest of New England are more confident of their success in this economy than they were a year ago, a survey says.
The Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, based in Hamden, said Friday its survey of certified minority business enterprises (MBEs) found business optimism has improved along with general signs that the economy is slowly recovering.
On a seven-point scale, where 1 represents extremely pessimistic and 7 represents “extremely optimistic”, MBEs reported an average score of 5.5 in the 2010 survey compared to the 5.0 reported last year, the council said. A score of 5 represented “barely optimistic” and a score of 6 indicated “moderately optimistic”.
The Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council is the regional affiliate of the National Minority Supplier Development Council. It serves Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
The GNEMSDC has 400 certified MBEs with combined sales of $12.2 billion and more than 48,000 employees.
The improvement in business optimism by New England MBEs was supported by other findings of the survey.
Seventy-nine percent of MBEs reported that they expected to increase their sales to corporate members of the council in 2010 compared to 60 percent last year. Additionally, only 15.6 percent of MBEs expected to reduce their workforce in 2010 compared to 35.4 percent last year.
Also the number of MBEs who reported receiving a stimulus related project increased from 3.3 percent in 2009 to 14 percent in 2010. This is perhaps the first hard evidence that the stimulus is starting to reach minority businesses in the region that were particularly hard hit by the recession.
MBEs also reported doing more business with other MBEs, perhaps in response to the slowdown in sales to corporate members in 2009. In 2009, 38 percent of MBEs reported selling products or services to other MBEs compared to 59 percent in 2010. This is a welcome sign, as the GNEMSDC encourages MBEs to develop their business relationships with other MBEs.
Credit conditions appear to be about the same in 2010 as they were in 2009, with 17.7 percent reporting to have applied for a loan and being turned down in 2009 compared to 16.6 percent in 2010, the survey found.
