Florida small business owners are more concerned with keeping their current customers than the rest of U.S. small business owners, according to The Guardian Life Index: What Matters Most to America’s Small Business Owners.

The Guardian Life Index is based on a proprietary 21-point scale (from +10 to -10) and measures the positive and negative intensity of responses to 135 small business issues. Compared to the national findings which are based on 1,100 respondents, Florida small business owners expressed the greatest difference in the following areas:

• Keeping the customers from leaving (FL: 6.3 vs. U.S.: 5.6);

• Setting my business apart from our competitors (FL:5.3 vs. U.S.: 4.7);

• Our number one goal is making more sales than last year (FL: 4.4 vs. U.S. 2.8);

• We devote most of our time to increasing sales (FL: 3.9 vs. U.S. 2.8).

The research also reveals that 52% of small business owners in Florida plan to maintain business as usual compared to 54% nationwide. Additionally, 32% are confidently looking forward to expanding their businesses over the next 12 to 24 months compared to 38% nationally.