Nearly two-thirds of New York’s small-business owners felt increasing levels of stress fueled by running their companies, according to a recently released survey. The survey, from TD Bank, found that 62 percent of small-business owners in New York said their recent stress levels associated with running their businesses were steadily increasing or somewhat increasing. Another […]
Nearly two-thirds of New York’s small-business owners felt increasing levels of stress fueled by running their companies, according to a recently released survey.
The survey, from TD Bank, found that 62 percent of small-business owners in New York said their recent stress levels associated with running their businesses were steadily increasing or somewhat increasing. Another 25 percent indicated their stress levels weren’t changing, while just 13 percent reported decreasing levels of stress.
Rising stress was slightly more common in New York than in three other regions in the TD Bank survey — South Florida, Philadelphia, and Boston. A nearly equal portion of South Florida small-business owners said their stress levels were going up, 61 percent. Philadelphia wasn’t far behind, with 59 percent of small-business leaders there describing increasing stress. Slightly more than half of owners in Boston, 52 percent, felt more stressed recently.
A range of factors are driving up stress levels, TD Bank Market President for Upstate New York and Vermont Phil Daniels said in an email.
“Small-business owners have many responsibilities, which can lead to stress,” he said. “While managing their money was the top stressor according to our survey, small-business owners also cited managing employees, customer/client relations, and working hours.”
In New York, 30.9 percent of business owners cited managing finances as their top stressor. Sales and marketing tied with customer/client relations as the next-most-frequent responses, each notching 20.6 percent.
Another 19.6 percent of small-business owners named managing employees as their top source of stress. And 8.2 percent of respondents chalked stress levels up to working long hours.
Small-business owners didn’t run away from managing their finances, however. Just 8.2 percent of owners in New York claimed they spent too little time managing finances. That left 44.9 percent who said they spent the right amount of time on finances and 46.9 percent who believed they spent too much time doing so.
“Money management is one of the most important aspects of running a business, so it would be hard to find a business owner that isn’t spending the time needed to manage their finances,” Daniels said.
The TD Bank survey also covered sources of stress that are caused by owners’ business banks. Customer-service issues were the top stressors cited.
Lack of available customer support was named as the primary problem by 28.8 percent of New York owners, while limited banking locations was the main issue for 23.1 percent. An additional 17.3 percent pointed to credit delays for deposited checks, while 13.5 percent said their bank wasn’t open at convenient times. Finally, 11.5 percent lamented limited access to deposits, and 5.8 percent balked at limited checking-account options.
On the other hand, small-business owners credited customer service as a reason they appreciated their business banks. More than half of New York respondents, 54.2 percent, said they appreciated exceptional customer service. Other causes of warm feelings included banks being open during convenient hours, named by 24 percent of respondents, banks with large branch networks, cited by 11.5 percent, and banks offering a variety of services, named by 10.4 percent.
In addition to sources of concern covered in the survey, Daniels said uncertainty in Europe and the federal government’s potential “fiscal cliff” at the beginning of 2013 are causing stress among small-business owners. But he noted a positive trend in the New York market.
“With economic conditions slowly improving, we’re starting to see increased demand for small-business loans,” he said. “Whether it’s for business expansion or purchasing assets such as equipment, small-business owners are beginning to think more about growth headed into 2013.”
Princeton, N.J.–based ORC International conducted the survey for TD Bank in August. It measured responses from more than 400 respondents in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and South Florida. TD Bank, which is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. and Portland, Maine, released the survey results Oct. 11.
TD Bank is a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD). It has nearly 8 million customers and 1,300 locations in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Carolinas, and Florida. It had over $159 billion in deposits, including more than $22 billion in New York State, as of June 30, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Its New York presence is primarily in the New York City and Albany areas.
Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com