Study shows younger DC business owners are more optimistic about finances and willing to invest in business solutions

McLean, Va. (September 29, 2015) - Small business owners in the Washington, DC metro area are feeling good about current business conditions and future prospects. In fact, according to Capital One's Spark Business Barometer, an ongoing survey measuring the economic perceptions and financial conditions of small business owners, as well as the most common trends and challenges facing entrepreneurs and local businesses, 60 percent of business owners surveyed report the current business environment to be excellent or good, compared with 49 percent of business owners nationally.

Conditions are expected to continue improving as well, with 90 percent of DC-area businesses expecting to maintain or advance their financial positions in the next six months.

'The optimism business owners are feeling in the D.C. market has led to additional hiring and increased investments plans for hiring and further investments made back into their business,' said Heather Tuason, head of National Small Business at Capital One. 'As businesses continue to embrace digital technologies to manage and grow their businesses, we are committed to providing business owners with solutions designed specifically to address their unique challenges.'

In order to manage expected growth, some firms are looking to bring on additional staff and those intending to add resources have a more positive outlook on business conditions. Sixty-three percent of firms that plan on hiring new employees in the next six months expect their financial positions to improve in that time, versus 35 percent of businesses that have no intention of hiring during the same time period.

Despite the optimism, business owners in DC are faced with a number of key challenges in running their businesses. And as technology and management practices continue to evolve, there is increased interest from business owners to invest in solutions that will help mitigate the trials of running a business.

The latest Capital One Spark Business Barometer uncovered the following insights related to small business sentiment in D.C. and plans for the future:

Younger DC-based business owners are more willing to invest in new business solutions:

· Nearly half (47 percent) of the surveyed business owners are looking to increase their budgets in the next year in order to acquire solutions that will help them to run their businesses. Business owners under the age of 50 demonstrated a greater interest in investing in some solutions that will help them to run their businesses than their elder peers, including:

· Better technology for interacting with clients (38 percent vs. 19 percent)

· Workforce tools to save time and increase efficiency (27 percent vs. 12 percent)

· Business software solutions (27 percent vs. 9 percent)

Retail businesses face unique challenges compared to service-based companies:

· Retail businesses (46 percent) found it significantly more difficult to find ways to manage their businesses efficiently than service-based companies (27 percent).

· Despite the need on the part of retail businesses, service-based businesses were more likely to invest in solutions to increase efficiency (23 percent vs. 10 percent).

· Sixty percent of retail businesses found themselves to be in the same financial position as they were the year before, compared to just 42 percent of service-based companies, which were significantly more likely to see financial improvement (38 percent vs. 21 percent).

While adoption of mobile-based financial management tools is slow, certain subsets of business owners are more likely to try them:

· Minority business owners (31 percent) are more likely to use their mobile phones for this purpose.

· SBOs under the age of 50 (20 percent) are also more likely to do so.

Capital One also conducted similar research studies at the national level and within three other U.S. markets including the New York DMA, San Francisco DMA and the state of Texas.

Capital One is committed to understanding the challenges, trends and perceptions that affect small businesses' overall performance and day-to-day operations. Follow along on Facebook at Capital One Small Business and on Twitter at@CapitalOneSpark . Use hashtag #SparkBizBarometer to follow the conversation.

Survey Methodology

The following presents a summary the methodology used to execute Capital One's 1H 2015 Small Business Barometer Survey, conducted by the market research and business intelligence firm ORC International. For this telephone study, ORC interviewed a sample of 250 for-profit small businesses in the Washington, D.C. DMA. Small businesses are defined as those with total annual revenues less than $10 million. Interviews were conducted from July 15 - August 3, 2015. One respondent per business was interviewed. The margin of error is +/- 4.9 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

The initial sample for this study was constructed using a random selection from the extensive business database maintained by Infogroup, Inc., and drawn to be representative of qualifying small businesses throughout the Washington, D.C. DMA by industry and employee size. To compensate for variation in response rate among different types of businesses, final data were weighted by gender and industry to help ensure the final results are proportionally representative of the small business population in that area.

About Spark Business

Capital One® offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses, and commercial clients. Spark Business from Capital One comprises a suite of products and services specifically designed for small business, including credit cards with unlimited rewards, no-fee checking and savings, and secure and flexible merchant service offerings. Spark Business provides tips, resources, and inspiration to help your business thrive atwww.SparkBusinessIQ.com . For more information, visitwww.capitalone.com/smallbusiness .

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