CIT Direct Capital, the national online small business lending unit of CIT Group, today announced the results of its new survey conducted by The Harris Poll revealing that nearly three out of four small businesses in the U.S. plan to expand their product and service offerings this year.

"With strong expectations for growth, small businesses are well-​positioned to make improvements and upgrades," said John Donohue, head of CIT Direct Capital. "A total of 72% of small business owners report that expanding product and service offerings within current geographies is the top priority for this year."

The majority of small business owners, according to AudienceSCAN, are between the ages of 55 and 64 (24%).

Investment Priorities, Sources and Key Issues

• When it comes to investing in their businesses, 50% say technology is at the top of the list, followed by equipment upgrades (47%) and hiring staff (36%).
• To that end, over half of small businesses expect hiring at their company to increase over the next year.
• Despite these expectations, small businesses remain focused on a number of key issues. Data security is the top concern for small businesses (68%), followed by continued economic uncertainty (64%) and rising inflation rates (61%).
• The top ways in which small businesses have capitalized their company in the last five years include internal sources of funding (38%), secured bank loan (33%), and leasing/​equipment financing (22%).

It's not just technology that small business owners want to invest in for their businesses. About 18.7% of this group plans to buy new office equipment, furniture or supplies within the next year, according to AudienceSCAN.

"Understanding these key trends can help small businesses innovate and contextualize potential challenges," continued Donohue. "With data security as a top concern, we understand why half of small businesses are looking to upgrade technology at their businesses."

But how do advertisers get this message to small business owners? According to AudienceSCAN, TV ads is the medium that has gotten the most response in the last 12 months, with 66.5% of small business owners taking action after seeing one. Within the past month, another 36.3% of small business owners took action after seeing a sponsored search result while surfing the web. Make sure the ad is on the first page of search results though, because 18.4% of these owners don't go past the initial results page.

AudienceSCAN data is available for your applications and dashboards through the SalesFuel API. Media companies and agencies can access AudienceSCAN data through the AudienceSCAN Reports in AdMall.