New Jersey Businesses Had A Good Year in 2014

For many New Jersey businesses, 2014 was a good year.

More importantly, many New Jersey busineses expect their success to continue into the New Year.

According to Provident Bank’s 2014 Business Barometer, which surveyed more than 300 New Jersey business owners, 43 percent reported that their business performed “great” or “good” in the past 12 months. In addition, fewer companies reported struggling or poor performance of new jersey businesses in 2014 compared to 2013 (26 percent vs. 31 percent).

Looking ahead, 82 percent of owners of new jersey businesses  stated that they are either somewhat or very optimistic about the coming year. In other good news, fifteen percent of companies surveyed expect growth of 10 percent or more in 2015. Only twelve percent of surveyed companies projected such growth for 2014.

According to the survey, the optimism should translate to job growth. Overall, 37 percent of companies are planning on adding new employees in 2015, and 46 percent of such employers plan to hire full-time workers in 2014, which represents a significant increase over last year’s 20 percent.

Below are several other key findings:

• Among those who said business was good or great in 2014, owners most often attributed increased sales (33%) and new customers (13%) for their success.
• 51 percent of business owners indicated that they worked more hours in 2014 than in 2013.
• When asked what the most important lesson learned was in the past year, 16% of respondents said “Keep up with changes in technology and marketing” while 11% cited “Retaining customers and the importance of good customer service” and10% chose “Work harder & smarter/keep pushing forward”.
• The most important concern among owners of New Jersey businesses continues to be the state of the economy (rated 4.34 on a scale of one to five), followed by consumer confidence (3.91) and the national political climate (3.64). Two business owner concerns which increased in importance from last year included state property taxes (up from 3.53 to 3.96 this year) and cyber threats (up from 2.36 to 2.82).

Hopefully, the optimism for business conditions in 2015 as expressed by the respondents in this survey will signal a happy new year for New Jersey businesses.