International Profit Associates > Expressing Small Business Opinions

In July of 2004, the International Profit Associates Small Business Research Board (IPA SBRB), "Expressing Small Business Opinions," was created to monitor the opinions of small business owners and managers on a wide variety of topics related to their own business as well as national and international issues that may impact their operations. This is

a continuing series of studies on economic issues that affect small businesses.

Participants in the polls provide feedback on significant issues and allow for real-time insight into the state of small businesses nationwide. The universe of participants is developed from among more than 100,000 small businesses across the United States. More

than 150 small business owners and senior managers participate in each IPA SBRB structured poll which is supervised through an independent resource. Each study is a voluntary survey conducted via phone, email and fax. Those participating in the IPA SBRB program are invited to become members of the IPA Small Business Research Board.

Rapidly rising health care costs are putting a major strain on U.S. small business owners, an Illinois consulting group serving small firms said Wednesday.

Costs for payroll, materials and inventory are also rising quickly, said small business owners polled for the INTERNATIONAL PROFIT ASSOCIATES (IPA) Small Business Research Board survey, released recently.

About 170 business were polled for the study.

"Rapidly rising health care costs threaten the capacity of many small businesses to pay for the health care of their employees and, at

the same time, make the necessary investments to grow their businesses," Gregg Steinberg, President and Chief Executive of IPA said.

"Ongoing double-digit increases in health care costs weaken the ability of small business to drive an economic and jobs growth recovery."

Health care took second place in a list of variables that small business owners said could significantly impact their businesses. It was followed by competition, consumer confidence, capital investment and interest rates, in that order. The economy topped the list.

As published in The Washington Times,
September 16, 2004