Things are looking up on Main Street. Owners of US small businesses are feeling more optimistic than they have since 2008, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday. But with a score of 71 on the small business index, sentiment still remains below pre-recession levels.

There are plenty of reasons for small businesses to think the future is bright. After years of uncertainty, the money is finally coming in. They are no longer handing out pink slips and are instead looking to hire new staff. Some are even planning to grow – and can actually do so, as small business loans are becoming easier to acquire.

About half of the small businesses polled reported increased revenues in the past year. More money often means more business, and more business often means more jobs. In the survey, more small business owners said they hired new employees than said they have let people go.

It’s good news for President Obama, who touted economic recovery in his State of the Union address.

“Today, thanks to a growing economy, the recovery is touching more and more lives,” he said in the annual address. “Wages are finally starting to rise again. We know that more small business owners plan to raise their employees’ pay than at any time since 2007.”

The outlook for small businesses has been on the rise in the past few months. In October, the PNC Economic Outlook survey found that two out of five business owners expected to increase their employees’ compensation in the following six months. More than half of those planning to increase wages expected to do so by as much as 3% or more, according to the survey.

“Wage growth has been a missing piece of the labor market puzzle to date,” PNC’s chief economist, Stuart Hoffman, said at the time .

In December, despite steady job creation, average hourly earnings dropped by five cents. But the trend turned upward in January, with wages increasing by 12 cents to $24.75. according to Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report.

Job creation in the US is being driven mostly by the private sector, which has added 11.8m jobs over 59 straight months of job growth. But most of these jobs came from medium and large companies, with small businesses lagging behind.

“Coming out of the most recent recession, job creation by small businesses has lagged, and the new business formation rate continues to fall,” says Ann Marie Wiersch. a senior policy analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland. “While it is not clear that these trends are driven by weaker borrowing or limited access to loans, it is evident that businesses need adequate credit to succeed and grow.”

More growth could be on the way. A third of small business owners reported finding an easier time obtaining loans than in years past, according to Gallup.

Since the recession, most of the loans have gone to larger businesses. One reason, though, is that demand for loans by smaller businesses has been weak. Small businesses had been hesitant to invest and unsure whether the recovery was truly under way for them.

If the positive outlook is anything to go by, their time has finally come.