According to a poll conducted in the United States this month, the confidence of small business owners, which had been on the increase over the past couple of months, leveled off in June.

According to Discover Financial Services, which conducted the survey, worries regarding temporary cash flow issues offset some improvement in the way small business owners see the economic climate for their own operations; small business owners reporting temporary cash flow issues increased to 51% in June, up from 45% in May, and representing the highest such result since January.

However, the direct banking and payment services company's Small Business Watch - a monthly index measuring the relative economic confidence of US small businesses with less than five employees, based on a national random survey of 750 small business owners - found that there had been a slight increase in confidence about how individual business owners were faring generally, with 30% revealing that economic conditions for their businesses are improving, up from 28% in May; 43% felt that business conditions were worsening in June, although this was down from 44% in May.

Ryan Scully, director of Discover's business credit card division explained that:

"Many small business owners are working harder than ever to make payroll, pay their bills and keep their businesses running. Last month, more owners reported increasing their spending, which is good news. However, if sales are lagging this month, it's possible that cash flow was more of an issue."

43% of owners announced that they plan to decrease spending on business development activities such as advertising, inventories, and capital expenditures, down from 46% in May; whilst 25% planned to increase spending, representing no change from May.

Asked to explain the - often multiple - reasons behind their waning confidence, 51% of those questioned said that the stock market was having some negative impact on their businesses, 30% stated that the gulf oil spill has had a negative effect on their business, and 40% revealed that have felt some negative impact from the debt crisis in Europe (although 51% said that this last factor had no effect, and 6% acknowledged some positive effects as a result of it).