A while back I pointed out that in 2007, only 9 percent of U.S. privately-held businesses cited a shortage of investment money as a constraint on their growth. In response to a rather maniacal comment on that post, I went looking to see what things are like today.
Answer: about the same. The National Federation of Independent Businesses gives us this up-to-the-minute snapshot. (Update: yes that is a mislabeling--should be February 2009. It's from the March 2009 report and the other tables in that report are properly labeled.)
Just as in the 2007 survey (from another outfit) cited in the previous post, financing and interest rates come in dead last (selected by only 3% of businesses) among small businesspeople's concerns. Their problems, which should be obvious to anyone with eyes and a mind, are on the demand side.
