I was reading the other day a couple of surveys on the state of business for the first half of 2012. One was the “United States Chamber of Commerce Q2 Small Business Study” and the other was E-Myth/Synotac’s 2012 “State of the Business Owner.”

The Q2 U.S. Chamber of Commerce Economy Study was conducted among small business executives (defined as executive-level position in a company with fewer than 500 employees and annual revenue less than $25 million). Four hundred thirty-seven of the participants were U.S. Chamber of Commerce members while 818 we’re nonmembers weighted to be representative of the small business population .

Here’s something interesting I found. "While eight out of 10 small businesses continue to think the national economy is off on the wrong track and more than half (53 percent) of small businesses surveyed cite economic uncertainty as their top concern, since July 2011 the small business outlook about their local economy has dramatically improved, with nearly twice as many small business leaders saying the economy is headed in the right direction today compared to one year ago. In July 2011, 27 percent of small business owners reported their local economy was headed in the right direction, while 47 percent of small business owners report their local economy is headed in the right direction today."