Business owners in Long Island, N.Y., are growing moreoptimistic about local and national economies and better financialhealth, according to a new survey from Bethpage Federal CreditUnion.

The $5 billion credit union in Bethpage, N.Y., has releasedfindings from its second annual Bethpage Long Island Small Business Survey, which collecteddata from 603 small businesses with annual revenues up to $10million.

More small business executives think the economic climate isimproving from a year ago, according to the survey conducted by theStony Brook University Center for Survey Research.

Twenty-seven percent rated the national economy as very orfairly good, up from less than 10% last year, and almost a third(32%) rate the Long Island economy as very or fairly good, up from19% in 2011.

Fifty percent of executives surveyed said they are very orsomewhat optimistic about Long Island economic business conditionsover the next 12 months, which is a substantial increase from 37%who reported last year. As a result, 64% of businessexecutives rated their current financial status as positive, upfrom 52% last year.

“The small business community is beginning to experience a renewedspirit of entrepreneurship, helping to increase overall consumerconfidence on Long Island,” said Kirk Kordeleski, Bethpagepresident/CEO.

Roughly a quarter of business owners said they areplanning to add staff in 2013, an improvement from last year whenonly 16% expected to increase the number of their employees,according to the survey. Twenty-five percent of small businessexecutives think the next six months would be a good time to expandsubstantially, an increase from 17% a year ago.

Looking at women-owned businesses vs. men-owned businesses, thesurvey revealed some intriguing differences. Sixty-seven percent ofwomen owners with businesses with revenues between $500,000 and $10million said they were more positive about the effect of ownershipon their marriage and family life compared to 48% of menowners.

More female business owners have another family member workingin their business than male business owners (59% vs. 44%), the datashowed.

The survey also showed that women were more likely than men (44%vs. 37%) to hire outside companies to handle business functions, asignificant increase from last year when only 23% of women and 20%of men said the same.

Bethpage, which has been a strong advocate for raising themember business lending cap from 12.25% to 27.5% of assets,said the survey's findings are key to meeting a unique set ofneeds.

“With this, it's important that we support and address theconcerns of the small business community in every way we can, asthey are the impetus for Long Island's economic growth,” Kordeleskisaid. “This means giving small businesses more access tocapital. For Bethpage, it means funding loans to supportgrowth, aid in expansion and stimulate the economy.”