92 Percent of Small-Medium Business CEOs Say Washington Is Not Listening To Their Needs Vistage CEOs Say While Economic Conditions Are Improving, Government Regulations Threaten Their Businesses

1. Government Ignoring Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses,
According to Vistage CEO Survey
Quarterly survey finds federal tax policy, healthcare legislation, and regulations
requiring CEOs to do more with less
SAN DIEGO (April 12, 2010) – Nearly 90 percent of Main Street companies have not directly benefited from government
stimulus funds, yet they are being stretched even more through tax policy, healthcare legislation, and government
regulations.
According to the Vistage International Q1 2010 CEO Confidence Index, the nation‟s largest and only comprehensive
survey of U.S. small-and medium-sized business CEOs, 85 percent said they believe Washington is not listening to their
needs. When asked which areas were of highest concern, 25 percent said business tax policy, 25 percent said healthcare
legislation, 22 percent said government regulations, and 15 percent said availability of credit.
Eighty six percent of the 1,869 Vistage members surveyed are worried government may now cause them to do more with
even less. They are leaning on increased employee productivity, web-based marketing and international opportunities to
carry them through the emerging recovery. Reports indicate that in the United States, small- and medium-sized
businesses create 75 percent of all new jobs and generate 50 percent of all revenue.
“While economic confidence is on the rise, our nation‟s CEOs are feeling the uphill battle,” says Rafael Pastor, chairman
of the board and CEO of Vistage International, a non-partisan and non-advocacy membership organization of nearly
10,000 CEOs and senior executives in the United States. “The leaders of the engine of the American economy are
simultaneously coping with reduced operational resources and increased government costs, and yet their confidence in
the year ahead is on the upswing.”
According to the survey, 49 percent of Vistage CEO members believe economic conditions in the United States will be
better over the next 12 months than they are now, a 3-point increase since last quarter and a 12-point increase from one
year ago.
“There are signs of small business success in the „new normal‟ economy,” says Dr. Richard Curtin, Ph.D., director of
consumer surveys at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “The correlation between this survey and the GDP show the
predictions two quarters ahead.”
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2. While 69 percent of small business CEO‟s see China as the biggest threat to overtaking the United States as an economic
superpower, 38 percent of CEOs believe that three-to-five years from now entrepreneurship and business opportunities in
the United States will be stronger than they are today.
The Vistage International Q1 2010 CEO Confidence Index is a compilation of responses from 1,869
CEOs of small- and mid-sized companies in the United States, surveyed between March 22- April 2, 2010, with a margin
of error of 1.7 percentage points.
about Vistage International
Vistage is a CEO peer organization in 16 countries with more than 14,000 members worldwide. Collectively, Vistage
members run companies with an estimated $300 billion in revenues and employ over two million people. In addition to
their peer groups, Vistage CEO members have access to expert resource speakers and receive monthly one-to-one
coaching from a mentor called a Vistage Chair. The sharing of information in a Vistage group is completely confidential,
allowing for the open exchange of issues, ideas and solutions. For more information, please visit www.vistage.com.
media contact
Lois Arbogast Vistage International
858.509.5861 lois.arbogast@vistage.com
Molli Megasko Arment Dietrich, Inc.
646.863.3563 mmegasko@armentdietrich.com
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