Reliant Funding, a leading small business finance provider today announced the results of its latest survey. This survey focused on the 2017 Tax Act and SMB’s understanding of the impact of the new Tax Bill on businesses. The survey also examined how SMB’s use social media to reach their customers. The survey was sent to a sample of small business owners in March 2018.

Complete Statistics from Report

Small business sentiment

• 44% Optimistic
• 39% Satisfied
• 17% Discouraged

Investment over next six months

• 47% no plans to invest / expand
• 17% plan to invest in marketing
• 10% plan to upgrade facility/equipment
• 9% New products / inventory
• 7% Staff training
• 5% Technology
• 5% Hiring more employees

Small business challenges

Top 3 internal challenges:

• 39% Finding leads/new business
• 22% Evolving technology
• 20% Marketing/advertising

Top 3 external challenges:

• 30% Customer spending
• 17% Competitors
• 12% Healthcare costs

How Tax Bill affects small business

• 53% are confused and plan to seek advice on how it will affect their business
• 25% are familiar and plan to capitalize on the tax bill
• 22% don’t know and do not care how it affects their business

Those who understand Tax Bill will leverage savings

• 43% plan to use it to save for an emergency fund
• 31% plan to use it to invest in employee salary/bonuses
• 27% plan to purchase new equipment

Social media / small business

Small businesses owners using social media

• 52% have accounts (uses social media regularly)
• 46% don’t have one (never uses social media)
• 2% unfamiliar with social media

Most impactful social media channel for small business

• 61% say Facebook most impactful
• 16 % say LinkedIn most impactful
• 10% say Twitter most impactful
• 8% say Google + most impactful
• 5% say Instagram most impactful
• 1 % say Snapchat most impactful

Social media advertising investment

• 66.02% invest in advertising on social media
• 33.98% do not invest in advertising on social media

Those who invest in advertising spend in top channels

• 76% advertise on Facebook
• 9% advertise on Google +
• 6% advertise on Instagram
• 6% advertise on Twitter
• 3% advertise on LinkedIn

Monthly social media spend

• 79% spend $300 or less a month
• 12% spend between $400 – $600 a month
• 6% spend between $700 – $1,000 a month
• 3% spend over $ 1,000

Revenue increase from social media investment

• 53% said they saw an increase
• 47% said they didn’t see an increase

Social media posting frequency

• 48% once a week or less
• 32% once a day
• 13% twice a day
• 7% more than three times a day

Those who don’t use social media

• 67% think it’s a waste of time
• 21% don’t have enough time to keep up with
• 12% don’t understand how social media works

DIY or hire a professional

• 80% run social media accounts themselves
• 20% hire someone else to do it

Small Business Fitness

• 77% don’t encourage fitness activities for employees
• 23% do encourage/provide fitness activities for employees

Snapshot of who we surveyed

Gender

• 34% Male
• 66% Female

Age

• 44% over 60 years old
• 39% 45-60 years old
• 12% 30-44 years old
• 5% 18-29 years old

Industry

• 12% Retail Industry
• 3% Restaurant & Bar Industry
• 2% Automotive Repair Industry
• 9% Construction Industry
• 15% Healthcare Industry
• 1% Transportation Industry
• 57% Consulting/Service Based Industry