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A new survey from Bank of America finds that small business owners are more confident in their local economies than the national economy overall. And as they see growth in the local economy, they will grow their businesses.

The survey, of 1,300 small business owners, reveals that 42 percent of respondents are more confident in their local economy vs. 35 percent in the national economy. An even bigger percentage — 69 percent — say their local economy is important to the overall success of their business.

“Overall, we see an improvement of confidence among small business owners,” said Robb Hilson, Bank of America

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[BAC  Loading...      ()   ] small business executive, during a conference call on Thursday about the survey. “Arizona, the Inland Empire, Las Vegas — there are still concerns there. But in spite of the challenges, there is growing optimism among small business owners.”

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Many people dream of opening their own business. But some would-be entrepreneurs are finding that state licensing requirements are so arduous that it would take years and thousands of dollars before they ever would be able to hang out a shingle.

Licenses are intended to set standards in order to protect customers. But many state licensing laws can be erratic, illogical and burdensome — and stop some people from launching a small business, says the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm. A recent IJ study looked at 102 lower- and moderate-income occupations that require licenses, including those in which practitioners can start their own businesses. Among them: manicurists, barbers, massage therapists and people who have construction skills like painting and masonry.  » Read More

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Are you an entrepreneur living your dream? A risk-taker with a big idea for a game-changing business? A small business owner working to innovate amid trying economic times?

CNBC wants to invite you to its Town Hall event on June 13 in Atlanta.

This dynamic and empowering event will feature well-known entrepreneurs and business people speaking on what it takes to create and sustain a small business in the 21st century.

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CNBC President Barack Obama speaks on an America built to last.

President Barack Obama says Congress could help sustain the economy's "momentum" by passing legislation that would give businesses a 10 percent income tax credit if they create new jobs or increase wages this year.

Obama made his pitch during a roundtable discussion with small business leaders in Washington. The legislation is part of what Obama calls his "to-do" list for Congress. Obama says the action plan will help ensure that the economy doesn't "lose steam" at a time when people are starting to feel optimistic.

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When business is good, it's all good. It's when the going gets tough that you find out who is really in your corner.

Take Bill Silverman, owner of a ski shop in Livingston, N.J. His business had been through unseasonably warm winters before.

January and February of 2005 had been some of the wettest months on record, but also the warmest, and his business, which usually grosses about $2.5 million annually, fell off sharply. That time, he said, his bank discussed pulling his line of credit, but it was eventually renewed.

But this spring, after another nearly snowless winter in the Northeast, Bank of America, which has been his lender for years, sent a letter requesting that Silverman pay off his current line of credit by June 15.

Silverman, who has run High Country Ski and Sports for 26 years, is trying to come to terms with BofA, but he’s not waiting to hear if they reinstate it. In recent weeks he’s met with other, smaller banks. “I’m surprised how receptive the locals are,” he says, “They’re looking to beat out the big banks.”

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A pickup in hiring heading into the summer months could bode well for job creation in the second half of 2012, according to a recent survey by CareerBuilder.com.

The online career site’s annual Summer Job Forecast shows that 29 percent of employers plan to hire workers for the summer, an increase over last year’s 21 percent.

“This is good news for job seekers, as seasonal work can often lead to full-time opportunities,” said Brett Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America, in a statement. “A majority of employers told us they consider a summer position an extended job interview.” In addition, the survey revealed that 71 percent of employers said they’ll be considering some summer hires for permanent positions.

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While the center of the universe this week for Wall Street and the IPO world is Facebook’s long-awaited debut to the public market, the biggest ongoing story related to the IPO market is the enactment last month of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act.

This important new law contains all the elements needed to breathe new life into an IPO market that had been eviscerated over the past decade. It is an especially welcome tonic for the emerging growth companies that drive U.S. innovation, job creation and economic activity.

Among its key provisions, the JOBS Act creates a so-called IPO on-ramp that removes many of the roadblocks to going public that emerging growth companies have faced over the past decade due to a jumble of well-intentioned but ultimately misguided government regulations, including the almost universally loathed Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002. Originally conceived in the wake of the Enron and Worldcom accounting scandals, SOX was intended to apply only to the 1,000 largest companies in the U.S. Yet, in a fit of last-minute regulatory zeal, Congress in its wisdom ultimately decided to apply SOX to all U.S. public companies.

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It's not just large businesses that are looking to cutting-edge technologies such as virtualization, cloud computing and mobile devices to beef up their disaster preparedness capabilities. A significant number of small- and medium-size businesses are adopting these innovations as well, a new survey shows. And the move is paying off for them.

More than one-third of SMBs are now taking advantage of mobile devices for business use, according to a worldwide survey of more than 2,000 organizations with between five and 250 employees sponsored by Symantec

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[SYMC  Loading...      ()   ], the IT security company. Virtualization is also on the radar of SMBs, with 34 percent currently deploying or already benefitting from server virtualization. Even more popular is cloud computing, the survey found, with 40 percent deploying public clouds and slightly more (43 percent) implementing private clouds.

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