Optimism appears to be rising among small business owners (SBOs): 53% of the SBOs who participated in TD Bank's 2018 Small Business Survey said they expect their revenues will grow in 2018. That's an improvement over the 46% of respondents who said the same in 2017.In addition, the number of small businesses -- defined for purposes of the survey as those with $5 million or less in annual revenues -- that plan to hire this year more than doubled.