78% of small and mid-sized business owners anticipate revenue growth this year, according to a Bank of America study. While the majority of business leaders are planning to expand, confidence lags a bit within smaller businesses.

Bank of America president of business banking Raul Anaya joins Wealth! to dig into the study and what it signals about the state of small and mid-sized businesses.

"Overall, the report is a positive one. As you said, nearly 80% of business owners that we surveyed across the country feel really good about what's going on within their business. 80% are expecting revenue growth next year, which bolsters confidence and their focus on expanding their business — almost 70% are looking to expand their business. More than half of them look to hire to support that growth. So overall, it's a good report," Anaya tells Yahoo Finance.

However, he notes that 85% mid-sized businesses anticipated more revenue growth next year, compared to 70% of small businesses. Anaya points out that mid-sized businesses have more employees and greater resources, allowing them to better execute their growth strategies compared to small businesses.

While the overall trend is positive, inflation remains a top concern for 70% of business owners. "They're having to really look at their costs. On average, those that were surveyed, 12% price increases in order to offset the inflationary effect," Anaya explains.

As a majority of businesses seek to expand in the next year, he notes that expansion can look different from company to company. Some are thinking about geographical expansion while others focus on new product areas. Anaya also highlights how business owners are leaning more into technology, using it to interact with clients, increase productivity, and reduce costs. A majority of these businesses are using AI to help with the hiring process as well.

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl