U.S. Small Businesses Expect Improved Sales Prospects (Infographic) A new survey shows that entrepreneurs in the U.S. are optimistic about domestic business growth.

By Catherine Clifford

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Even in the face of obstacles, entrepreneurs are fiercely optimistic by nature. They have to be to weather the inevitable struggles that come along with being a business owner.

Nine out of 10 U.S. startups and small businesses are worried about how the U.S. economy will affect their business, according to research released today from tech-giants Dell and Intel. At the same time, 75 percent of small business owners in the U.S. who responded to the survey expect improving sales prospects in the coming year. Whatever growth there will be in the coming year is expected to come from business in the U.S., not overseas, according to 84 percent of survey respondents.

Related: The Habits of Self-Made Billionaires (Infographic)

The research was performed by market-research firm Penn Schoen Berland and includes the responses from 941 businesses with between 1 and 99 employees, which has been collected since 2012. The business owners surveyed were scattered through nine U.S. metropolitan regions, including the following: Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and Orange County, Austin, Texas, Philadelphia, Boston and Seattle.

Related: Small-Business Owners, Employees Save More for Retirement Than Before Recession

The infographic (below) includes how small business owners feel about the coming year, where they are getting access to capital, what their employment strategy is and how they are managing their technology needs:

U.S. Small Businesses Expect Improved Sales Prospects (Infographic)
Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

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