Hiscox has produced an infographic that suggests, despite a recession, business optimism is surprisingly high overall for the next year. SMEs in the UK, US, Germany, Britain, France and Spain gave their views on a number of issues relating to their business. Collectively, 48% of SMEs were optimistic about their business doing well, as opposed to 27% who were pessimistic. One of the most optimistic results in the infographic was that 75% forecast that redundancies will be avoided in the next 12 months. Nearly half of SMEs also recorded that there had been profit growth in the past year. There were some worrying figures regarding stress, with nearly a third admitting that loss of sleep had been caused by worry. It is worth considering professional indemnity insurance, if you don’t already have it, as the risks of a mistake start to rise. Close to a third of people, also thought that the recession had made them more determined to work even harder to find success. The Netherlands and Germany were the most positive two countries regarding business prospects for the next 12 months, with well over 50% being positive. The US and UK were also not far behind, while France and Spain were pessimistic. Spain was shown to be the most fearful of all about the next 12 months, with 50% being afraid of ending up bankrupt, personally. The US and Germany was positive in terms of an increase in profit, and, in the UK, over half were happier with the state of their business.