ATLANTA — A new report finds Georgia’s small businesses are doing better than the rest of the country, despite challenges facing many business owners.
The Fiserv Small Business Index shows growth nationally was 0.7%, compared with 1.6% across Georgia and 3.5% in Atlanta.
Mike Spriggs, head of consumer insights at financial services technology company Fiserv, said many business owners are still facing challenges.
“We’ll have to see how long this inflationary period endures. We just saw two back to back months of inflation increase, so small businesses have to buckle up and hold on,” Spriggs said.
Spriggs said professional services are performing the best in metro Atlanta.
“These are going to be things like anything from tax preparation services, to attorneys, advertising agencies,” Spriggs said.
According to the index, professional services businesses in Atlanta are growing at a rate of 5.3% year over year.
Spriggs said restaurants and other food and beverage businesses are seeing declines.
“In what we’re seeing there is that those sales are declining, some are at a two and half percent decline,” Spriggs said.
Spriggs said one of the biggest challenges facing small business owners is “finding ways to stay profitable in the face of what we’ve been calling sticky or stubborn inflation.”