The Intuit Payroll survey finds small business owners expressing greater confidence in the economy and their prospects for growth in 2010. Sixty percent expect their business to grow in the next year.

Entrepreneurs who have founded businesses more recently are the most bullish: 80 percent of companies founded less than three years ago expect to grow over the next year. More veteran business owners who have been around for more than one recession are less optimitstic.

"Economists may have declared the recession over, but on Main Street, unemployment figures are what really matter," said Nora Denzel, senior vice president of Intuit's employee management division. "There are struggles ahead, nobody is uncorking the champagne bottle quite yet, but we are starting to see small signs of optimism."

In the current market with unemployment over 9 percent, 50 percent of small business owners are looking for a "people person," more than creative or mathematically skilled workers, Intuit said.