Poll: One small business in four fears it won't survive

According to a recent poll conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation, 25 percent of small-business owners fear their businesses may not survive the recession. Another 16 percent said the economic downturn has depressed their business prospects for the foreseeable future.

According to the survey, tight credit isn't the problem; it’s poor sales. About 45 percent of small-business owners cited slowing or lost sales as their biggest problem, followed by 23 percent who cited the unpredictability of business conditions. Only 9 percent cited an inability to obtain credit, the same percentage that cited falling real estate values.

"The fundamental small-business problem is the poor economy, abetted by the drop in real estate values and the nation's financial turmoil," said William Dennis, who directed the poll for NFIB. "Efforts to provide additional credit, whether through encouraging bank lending or government loan guarantees, are not likely to be of much help to small-business owners," he said.

"Those businesses who report they can't get credit are typically unable to absorb more debt." A better solution, he said, is a six-month holiday on payroll taxes, which would give small businesses and their workers more money to spend.