Survey: Connecticut businesses notch best year since 2006

BlumShapiro ”” a New England accounting, tax and business consulting firm with a Shelton office ”” and the Connecticut Business and Industry Association have again joined forces and released their 14^th annual survey of Connecticut businesses.

The results point to the most profitable year for business since 2006, but also to what BlumShapiro, with 400 employees, termed an “overriding consensus” to create a more business-friendly environment in Connecticut.

According to a statement from BlumShapiro accompanying the data, “The ”˜2015 Survey of Connecticut Businesses”™ shows the state continues to see increased growth and a large number of companies remain profitable.”

About half, 48 percent, saw taxes as their biggest concern and 53 percent said lowering them would benefit business.

Eighty-two percent of those surveyed indicated they are either growing, 32 percent, or holding steady, 50 percent.

Thirty-seven percent of businesses expected a sale or transfer of the company in the next 10 years, while 46 percent foresaw continuation of current ownership.

More than nine of 10 businesses, 91 percent, considered Connecticut”™s business friendliness to be worse than in states outside of the Northeast.

Of the 33 percent of companies surveyed that export goods or services, 10 percent attributed at least 40 percent of their sales to exports, while 47 percent say exports account for 10 percent to 39 percent of sales revenue.

“The ability of Connecticut”™s businesses to rise above the state”™s public policy and economic shortcomings and continue to remain profitable lends optimism to this year”™s survey,” said BlumShapiro Managing Partner Joseph Kask, who works in the firm”™s West Hartford office.

According to the survey, a primary area of concern is the expansion of businesses over the next five years, with 31 percent of businesses considering out-of-state options for growth.

“The overriding consensus of this year”™s survey is the need for state lawmakers to engage business leaders to create a more business-friendly climate in Connecticut by enhancing the dialogue on taxes and competiveness,” Andrew Lattimer, a partner with BlumShapiro, said.

This year”™s survey also found the majority of Connecticut businesses do not have a succession plan in place, which is consistent with a new study released this past summer by BlumShapiro and Baker Tilly International, a Chicago-based accounting firm with regional offices in the tristate area.

That study, titled “Succession Reset: Family Business Succession in the 21^st Century,” found the time for family-owned businesses to start planning for succession is now. It also said nearly 80 percent of family businesses nationally are not prepared for what happens when the current management steps down, according to BlumShapiro Managing Partner Carl Johnson.

“With an unprecedented number of businesses planning to sell over the next 10 years, 76 percent of Connecticut business owners report that they do not yet have a succession plan in place. Business owners need to start this planning process years in advance to ensure continuity of the business, future profitability and jobs,” Johnson added.