Optimism among small business owners edged up this month, according to the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard survey for December released today, with 69% saying  they are optimistic about the small business economy, up from 68%% in November’s survey.

The report also surveyed the small business owners about the impact of the Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate hike, with 45% reporting it will have no impact.

Those in the financial services industry said it may actually help, as it could increase the cash value of life insurance policies, for instance.

Some said higher rates would make it more difficult to take out lines of credit and those in real estate worried about the cost of borrowing for home buyers. However, many entrepreneurs and startup founders are using non-bank alternative sources of lending or borrowing from friends and family. 

Most small businesses, 61%, said they have not benefited from the low rate environment while 39% said it facilitated things like better cash flow and hiring more staff.

“Certainly affordable access to capital is a positive for someone trying to grow a business, and hopefully that will continue as rates are still relatively low,” said SurePayroll General Manager Andy Roe. “On the other hand, many small businesses only have a few employees with small offices, or offices in their homes, so they don’t tend to do much borrowing. For them, it’s probably business as usual.” 

In other findings from the SurePayroll survey, 66% of small businesses said they were profitable in 2015, compared to 61% in 2014. Looking forward to the 2016, 64% are forecasting increased profitability.