This article suggests that 38% of small business owners do not expect to survive 2009 because of the current economic downturn. Research which was carried out by the Financial Mail and This is Money found that over half of small business owners had cut back on credit and 66% would be making staff redundant. The results show that small business owners are pessimistic about the coming year but it thought that the reality could be much worse. The Forum of Private Business estimates that as many as 200,000 firms could close next year.