Survey: Triangle entrepreneurs remain optimistic for sales, hiring

Entering the second quarter of 2017, Triangle entrepreneurs remain just about as optimistic as they were when the new year began, according to the Quarterly Outlook of Triangle Entrepreneurs. And that’s good news, says the exec running the survey.

The survey’s index score is down slightly to 116.30 from 117.07 for the first quarter, the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic and the City of Raleigh, which team up for the survey, reported Tuesday.

The score, however, is up some 14 points year-over-year.

Most of those surveyed are expecting their revenues to increase and they also are collectively planning to boost hiring as well as capital spending over the next six months.

“We have not seen this level of stability in the outlook index before,” explained Lewis Sheats, associate professor of practice in entrepreneurship in the Poole College of Management and executive director of the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic. “We are eager to see how the rest of 2017 goes. The primary strength of this survey is that we can spot trends, and it will be very interesting to see whether we see stability in entrepreneurs’ optimism continues.”

Sales are expected to increase by 84.9 percent of respondents vs. 84.1 percent in Q1.

Hiring plans are slightly higher at 65.6 percent vs. 64.8 percent the previous quarter.

However, capital spending plans slipped a bit to 58.7 percent from 65.9 percent.