Most shop owners feel business conditions for the small shop market have improved from the last six months compared to current sales and revenues, according to a follow-up survey on market conditions affecting the small collision repair segment performed by Web-Est, LLC, a provider of collision repair estimating software.

In a similar survey taken in May of this year, 27 percent stated business had improved over the previous year compared to 40 percent in the survey taken from Sept. 5 to Sept. 9. The change represents a 13-percent increase.

Thirty-six percent of respondents in the new survey said that there had been no change – this is down by about 3 percent compared to May. In other results, fewer shops in September said their business was worse than it was six months ago – the number dropped by 10 percent from May to September. Web-Est believes this potentially is another sign overall business is improving.

The survey also demonstrated a growth in those who felt business wouldn’t return to the same “pre-economic downturn” levels any time soon or ever for that matter. The September survey showed a growth of nearly 10 percent who felt the recovery would take longer, not fully returning until the end of 2010, with 12 percent predicting business would never return to those levels – this is a growth of 6 percent.

The most recent survey taken in September included over 800 shops. Of the respondents, 85 percent identified themselves as having four or less employees.

Visit www.web-est.com for more information.