On a biannual basis, Pepperdine University conducts a very comprehensive survey of the business community and its perceptions of the current health of capital markets. Entitled the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Project (PCMP for short), the survey provides a window into the mindset of a variety of players in capital markets, and most importantly, private business owners.

For the purposes of this survey, more than 1,200 owners of privately held companies were contacted. Nearly 60% of the respondents had between 11 and 100 employees. So this survey truly captures the middle-market private business community.

Since they started this survey two years ago, Pepperdine has seen a gradual improvement in overall business owner confidence. Net increases in confidence were only 1.3% in the fall of 2009, increasing to 17% in the spring of 2010 and to more than 18% in fall 2010.

Business owner confidence has increased 36% in the latest survey. So over the past two years, private business owner confidence has dramatically improved. Of course given that Pepperdine began their surveys during the midst of the last recession, it is not surprising that private business owner confidence has improved significantly since then. [Read more…]