The IU East Business and Economic Research Center in Richmond, Ind., is out with the findings of its annual East-Central Indiana Business Survey. The results show businesses were less optimistic in 2023 than the year prior.
"The annual survey collects data from regional business owners or managers regarding their opinions on various aspects of their business performance, expectations of these aspects for the following year, and projections of the overall business and economic environment in their areas, as well as the anticipated rise in individual causes of doing business for the following year," explains Oi Lin Cheung, Ph.D., director of the center and a professor of finance.
The survey was sent to more than 1,000 business owners in Fayette, Franklin, Henry, Randolph, Rush, Union, and Wayne; and 124 valid responses were returned. The bulk of respondents, 80%, were small businesses with fewer than 50 employees; and 45% were in Wayne County.
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Most businesses either maintained production/business activities in 2023 at the same level as 2022, or saw slight increases. Most businesses — 80% — kept or expanded their employment in 2023, too. However, the cost of doing business increased — 94% of the businesses had experienced a rise in their costs of doing business, the report states.
"According to the participants responses, the individual costs expected to increase in 2024 by half or more of the participants in most industry sectors were payroll, insurance, utilities, employee benefits and taxes," Cheung says. "The banking sector, agriculture sector and animal industry, childcare, construction, residential or commercial cleaning, and utility sectors, they expect to suffer from the increase in more than five cost (areas)."
Cheung says the survey results are useful for businesses in the survey area and western Ohio as they plan for the future.
The full report is available online.
IU East Business and Economic Research Center has conducted the East-Central Indiana Business Survey annually since 2016. It first began in 2015 with a survey of businesses in Wayne County alone.
