Based on the reality of how businesses are performing, more than one-third of small business owners (38 percent) share a similar mind frame with their customers and believe the Great Recession is still a reality. According to the American Express OPEN® Small Business Monitor, a semi-annual survey now in its tenth year, “Economic sluggishness is impacting the psyche of entrepreneurs: 27 percent say they do not plan to grow in the next six months (up from 21 percent in the spring) and just 77 percent describe themselves as glass-half-full optimists (down from 85 percent a year ago).”