Insurance Rated Biggest Small-Business Headache
By Michael Ha
NU Online News Service, May 25, 4 :06 p.m. EDT?What are the three biggest problems for small businesses in the United States? Insurance, insurance and insurance, according to a new survey. [@@]
The poll of more than 4,600 small-business owners nationwide has found they rate health insurance, liability insurance and workers' compensation as their top three problems.
According to the survey, titled Small-Business Problems & Priorities Report, the health-insurance cost topped the list of problems small businesses face, with 65.6 percent of the respondents describing the issue as "critical."
The second-biggest problem cited by respondents was the cost and availability of liability insurance, with 30.1 percent of those surveyed describing it as a critical issue. The workers' compensation cost was the third-biggest problem, with 32.8 percent of respondents calling it critical.
The survey was sponsored by the Nashville, Tenn.-based National Federation of Independent Business, the country's largest small-business advocacy group, and the San Francisco-based banking firm Wells Fargo & Company.
Mailings for the survey were circulated in the first three months of 2004. The poll asked respondents to rate 75 possible business problems on a scale from "critical" to "not a problem."
"While small-business owners are gradually becoming more confident as the economy strengthens, these survey results illustrate there are still some very real concerns," said Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann, small business segment manager for Wells Fargo.
She added that the results reflect "just how challenging the economic landscape can be and underline why it is so important that we continue investing in research and solutions to better understand the issues confronted by small-business owners and how to help address them."
The full survey is available online at the National Federation of Independent Business Web site, www.nfib.com.
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