October 11, 2012

Despite Romney Appeals, Smallest Business Owners Favor Obama and Are Optimistic for 2013 in New Poll

First Presidential Survey of Micro-Businesses of Fewer Than Five Employees

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With small-business issues taking center stage in the presidential campaign, a new survey of primarily "micro-businesses" -- businesses with one to five employees -- indicates strong support for President Obama in the upcoming election. The survey, conducted over the past week by SohoOS, a provider of online management tools for more than 900,000 micro-businesses (also known as Small Office Home Office businesses or SOHOs), found that 43% of micro-business owners plan to vote for President Obama, compared to 36% for Mitt Romney. On the issue of taxes, 45% prefer President Obama and 40% favor Mitt Romney, and more than 70% cited the economy, taxes and healthcare as "very important" in their decision-making in the election. Surprisingly, almost 12% are undecided on their choice for president one month away from Election Day.

In terms of business prospects going into 2013, more than 62% of micro-business owners are optimistic, with more than 22% indicating that they are very confident about the economic outlook for their business in 2013.

"Small business has become a top topic in the U.S. presidential election,” said Ron Daniel, founder and CEO of SohoOS. “So we sought to uncover the sentiment of the smallest businesses in America, from plumbers to photographers to jewelry makers to consultants -- businesses that have been hit hard in the past four years. There are 30 million of these ‘micro-businesses’ in the U.S. that have between one and five employees and are critical to the growth of the U.S. economy. They believe that Obama is the better choice for their businesses."

Micro-business owners also expressed frustration with their local congressional representatives. Contrary to the typical “I hate Congress, but I love my congressional representative,” a significant 55% indicated that their U.S. senator and representative do not represent the interests of small businesses.

The survey of micro-business owners was conducted October 3-9 and had 620 respondents.

SohoOS.com is the fastest growing micro-business platform in the U.S., with more than 900,000 users worldwide who streamline core business functions with the company's free online system. The platform provides customizable invoicing with built-in status tracking, business document templates, marketing solutions, tailored Web pages, storage and support, and more -- all accessible via an intuitive dashboard from any browser, tablet or smartphone.

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