(KFSM)- The confidence level for small business owners is reaching new heights, leading to more small businesses all around the area.
"I think more people are learning to shop small and they're learning about how good it is for their community to do that," The Valley owner Kara Karber said. "It seems like just in the people that I know, a lot of people are stepping out of their comfort zone and maybe trying something that they've wanted to do for a long time."
The National Federation of Independent Business said owners are taking more risks and feeling comfortable about making investments.
"It's an exciting time," Chapters on Main co-owner Christian Westbrook said. "People are less afraid to spend their money on buying a building and remodeling it. There are a few examples of people who have done it and succeeded. Once you see somebody else being successful and spending their money and get it back, it makes you less afraid to try it yourself."
With businesses seeing the success, they're now expanding and opening multiple locations.
"We kind of want to expand in any way we can," Savoy Tea Company tea specialist Staci Miller said. "For us, we've seen how well it's been doing and how people respond to our homey small business model and we want to bring that to other places, too."
The shops can continue offering their customers a unique experience.
"I think people want to see a face with who they're shopping with," Miller said. "They want to know that they're helping a person and not a big business."
"If you want a little bit of everything, you can go to Walmart and it's easy," Westbrook said. "So, how do you compete with that? Well, being a local coffee shop, we have locally roasted coffee. It's flown in from Ethiopia, Honduras and El Salvador, but it's roasted here in Fayetteville. Walmart and the big companies, Starbucks, they can't say their coffee was roasted 40 minutes from here."
For more information about small business optimism and the National Federation of Independent Business Index of Small Business Optimism, visit the NFIB wesbite.